THE AFRICAN SAGE

There are new entrants into politics for every election year. The veterans understand the game but many green horns get burned very quickly and live to hate politics. I have observed the political landscape and here are some things aspirants should consider. A political campaign is no different from a sales and marketing campaign Good marketers understand that brand (image) is everything Good trade executioners know that volumes depend on VISIBILITY, PENETRATION and  ACQUISITION Visibility is about how often the customer or voter gets in contact with the politicians image Penetration is about the reach of the politician in terms of networks and heart to heart connections Acquisition has to do with actual closing of deal; the numbers of actual people verified as supporters Political Branding in Kenya is party, economic, cultural, religious and track record based Political party choice is everything because parties define people’s persuasion on many things Economic...

Kenya became independent in the 1960s; in the post-world war II era and the glory of Marshall Plan for Europe was mesmerizing thinkers. The modernization thinkers were advancing the thinking that transformation of traditional structures to modern structures; mechanistic alliances to organic alliances were the developmental path. Different thinkers strived to show how rational “the modern” was against the archaic traditional structures. Thus modernization thinkers like Rostow prescribed stages of growth and development. In the 1960s still, frustration was beginning to be felt at the seeming impossibility of all countries to transform as prescribed by the Eurocentric models. The foreign aid justifying theories such as focus on colonialism and its impact were questioned. Consequently, thinkers started considering determinants of structural change. Focus on balance of trade made import substitution a most celebrated economic model. Thus countries were urged to focus on comparative advan...