Youth wave set to tilt scales in Central Kenya

By Gakuu Mathenge
As the Party of National Unity prepares to ring-fence the central Kenya vote, a budding political initiative is threatening to call the bluff.
The new group insists there is room for competition as next year
However, another political elite is trying to forge an alliance with disenchanted youth in central Kenya through its public face and recently converted leader Mr Maina Njenga.
It wants to make inroads into a vote bloc often perceived extremely conservative.
Politics of exclusion and economic marginalisation of the youth are sharply pronounced in Central, where unemployed youth fall prey to criminal gangs and excessive alcoholism.
The Kazi Kwa Vijana initiative was partly meant to address this problem but without much success.
Those who feel this group and their public face, Maina Njenga, is still a force to reckon with point to Starehe constituency where his support for Bishop Margaret Wanjiru saw her beat PNU Organising Secretary Maina Kamanda twice.
They also point to the fact PNU former Chief Whip George Thuo lost his Juja seat to William Kabogo, largely to a revolt by young voters.
In Makadara, another PNU senior official and Assistant Minister Dick Wathika
Njenga has since shifted his alliance from Prime Minister Raila Odinga
They are scheduled to hold their first public rally in Nairobi next week, after their first attempt on December 13 was cancelled allegedly on security grounds.
But Wamalwa ally Tony Gachoka says the security allegations were a pretext to suppress an emerging second political force, challenging the established PNU order in central Kenya.
He says he hopes the police would not cancel the rally and will respect freedom of association and expression.
Gachoka has been on this road before when he supported Raila in 2007, and assumed the
On formation of the Grand Coalition Government, he was hired as chief of protocol in the PM
However, Gachoka fell out with the PM
In 1997, Gachoka supported Water Minister Charity Ngilu for president on a Social Democratic Party ticket, whose candidate in Gatundu South, Mr Moses Mwihia, beat Uhuru Kenyatta who ran on a Kanu ticket then.
Although his boss, Wamalwa has been attending meetings associated with them.