By LEE MWITI
Nairobi, the larger than life, cosmopolitan city that is the face of both the best and worst of the new Africa, is in a state of mild panic. Or rather, its middle classes are.
On March 4th, the city holds its first gubernatorial election in the backdrop of a national vote, and intriguingly for a country better known for voting along tribal lines, the script for the capital is this time markedly different.
The two frontrunners are Evans Kidero, a suave well-schooled corporate-type that has big, high-sounding ideas for transforming the metropolis of about three million. Then there is Ferdinand Waititu, a rough, street type well schooled in the ways of the slum and a man not averse to a good old-fashioned brawl and the reliance on extrajudicial means to move the lumpen ahead.
And, worryingly for Nairobi’s higher income classes which is an eclectic mixture of old money and nouveau riche, Waititu, a man who is no stranger to the courtroom and who is currently facing an incitement charge, the discomfiting possibility that he could win is very real. Especially when the city's perceived status is taken into account.
Depending on who you listen to, the city generates up to two-thirds of the national income, and is host to a large expatriate community. It is a technological, trade and regional finance hub that is home to several multinationals including Google, General Electric, IBM Coke, Pepsi, Airtel Africa and the International Finance Corporation.
It also hosts the only UN agency in a developing country, UNEP, and boasts a highly skilled labour force the envy of many in the region. Kidero’s policies appeal to many of these, and a lot of people agree that he has what it takes to manage and reclaim what he says is now a dysfunctional city following decades of institutionalised neglect.
From its heyday, Nairobi is now creaking under the weight of poor service delivery, public transport chaos, runaway crime and a terror threat from Somalia's Al-Shabaab that just won’t go away.
Nairobi also hosts some of Africa’s biggest slums, and it is in this chaotic environment that Waititu thrives. He resonates with the poor, who are easily the majority, due to what they see as his common touch.
Proletarian appeal
It is not uncommon to see him being beaten up by policemen sent to evict squatters and demolish shanties as he offers himself as a human shield. He has been particularly vocal over the grabbing of public land, and was in one infamous clip recorded physically assaulting one of his constituents accused of land theft.
His intellect is not always obvious, but what he lacks in the gift of the gab he more than makes up for by a populist streak that appeals to the proletariat. It is this group that may elect him into office.
It has not always been this way. Few had taken his candidacy seriously, until during a party primary last week he edged out another corporate big fish who is even more well-heeled than Kidero. The sensational victory was in large part due to widespread apathy from Nairobi’s middle class—an amorphous but burgeoning group that prefers upmarket bourgeoisie events, chattering on social media and conspicuous consumption to queuing in the sun to select politicians.
Waititu would still have had plenty of work against Kidero, until a televised interview where the latter spectacularly imploded in a showing that brought memories of Barack Obama’s first debate performance against Mitt Romney.
Looking to score cheap shots and belittle his less savvy opponent, the urbane Kidero instead came out looking arrogant and an intellectual bully, turning off many voters including the fickle middle class. Pundits agree that he may never recover electorally from this smug mis-performance.
And so Nairobi’s middle class is caught between a rock and a hard place, feverishly quoting philosophers such as Plato and muttering deeply about the "disaster" that would be a Waititu term, yet now deeply suspicious of Kidero’s snobbish attitude.
As one observer noted, it is a choice between a man who would visit the slum, and one who would eradicate the slum.
But for the city's poor, the chance to put one of their "own" in office and thumb their noses at their more snobbish neighbours - ironically many of them their employers - is not the outlandish prospect it once seemed.
As Nigeria’s Nollywood says, Afro-cinema continues.
Twitter:@ShrewdAfrican
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