The Battle That Was
- Jul 24, 2015
- 4 min read
".... a platoon of loud comrades, in fashionably barbaric way, influence the wave of campus politics...."
The crossfire, it is a battlefield with arrows of fire, spears and all manner of war paraphanelia flying all over the field aimed at you. There is nowhere to turn; running towards you is a an angrily charged mob all out for battle battle, baying mercilessly for your blood. Fleeing the battefield is not an option, you are already in too deep. You either kill or be killed. Most if not all the time, it is a messy bloodbath and some heads end atop stakes stuck on the ground. Only the brave and mighty survive.
Towards the day of elctions a similar scenario is seen in Moi University Main Campus. A fully packed LT3 is the battlefieldwhere the political life of aspirants struggle for existence and relevance. Political hopefuls are put on the hot seat and comrades pretend to listen as they dfend their flowery policies, som which promisea freeway to heaven's gate. I say pretend because with reference to past crossfires, comrades do more heckling than listening. What we see is aplatoon of loud comrades who in a fashionably barbaric way influence the wave of campus politics.
Normally it is atest of fire and any aspirant who is lucky to get past the crossfire without cowering and crashing under the pressure of the charged comrades, demanding for nothing but answers to their never ending prblems.
The aspirants meet faceto face withcomrades, somewhoi ahve afixated mindset on the lineup for thenext Student Governing Council. Another group of comrades know allthe aspirantsbut stillhave not made uptheir mindonwho is best fir for the seats. The last group is of comrades who are usually uninterested with the initial shenanigans of campus campaigns.
The aspirants have a tall order ofgiving their best performance in order to impress all the three groups to vote in their favour. This is a chance for them to prove themselves worthy. For comrades onthe other hand,thecrossfire gives them a chance to gauge not only the popularity but also the sense in their aspirants.
Thestrategies the aspirants put in place to make it throug the crossfire alive and with a high chnce of winning the elections, rangefrom stupendous to hilarious. Nevertheless, they have beenfound to be quite effectiveas testfied by a few succesful directors. Some have used the tyranny of sound where they mobilize their supporters to make the loudest of noise for them. This creates the impression that they have a huge following.
The intensity of noise at times is produced by actual legion and sometimes, they employ the servicesof hired goons, who are louder than severalcomrades combined. This helps raise the impression and at the same time puts your competitor down. Some aspirants who are not natural orators also use the tyranny of noise to put their speech so that nothing he/she say sis heard.
This shortens thetime he/she stands to speak while creating the impression that he/she has a following. For more daring contenders coming in half way into the crossfire helps ease the tension and distracts the crowd, thei legion of goons are always on standby to make soem noise.
All these antiques make the crossfire more interesting and some people have been able to make an impact despite the resistance. Most memorable is one of Salmon Omondi who was a finance aspirants for MUSO 2013/2014, By the time of the crossfire Salmon had ahandful of supporters, no banner and worse,no suit. These are a few critical things that make the campus electorates take you seriously; as you can guess comrades did not take him seriously. In fact when he took the microphone to speak chants of "Who are you?" and "Step down!" rent the air.
Despite all that,he persisted and his shrill voice pierced through the jeersuntil they were forced to keep quiet and listento him. When he was done, chantsofhis praise filled the airandafter the meeting ended, Salmon had a bannerand a group of comrades running behind him. This was a show as to how crossfire can change the politician's fortunes. So go in winners and come out losersbecause their failureto defend themselves adquately.
This semester's crossfire was not short of drama as was expected afteran incident that saw campus shut down. Aspirants going for the post of Chaipersondecide to have their supporers carry them around while making noise as other aspirants defended themselves. Some comrades saw thsi as a strategy on the side of speakers.There was the usual squabbles between different supporters as tempratures flared. One aspirant Apuoyo Rathore pulled the same stint Salmon Omondi pulled during his time and comrades actually gave him time to speak after which they showed him their support. Besides the usual wrangles it ended smoothly.
Thecrossfireis the political litmus paper of campus politics, it is the game changerif there is a goodstrategy in place. Some aspirantsstep down in favor of other candidates thenext day in the final kamkunji once they realise the 'state of the ground' will work against them. Others step downafter tribal endorsements by their elders and are forced to step down down after their posts are 'sold' out by the same chieftans.
The latest vistims are Don owino, Eric Kantona,Apuyo Rathore and Lynne Kosome. Their political lives hang in the balance bacause history has it that anyone who steps down has a slim chance of winning another election.
Today comrades got to the ballot to choose their next SGC, 2014/2015. Whether they willbe influenced by what transpired in the crossfire or by tribal endorsements remains a mystery until Saturday when theresults will be released. The Legacy encourage evry comrade to take partin the electoral proces peacefully, so do I.
It is a severe battel that only the politicians who ae sent home can tell better,or is it he hired goons?
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