Timothy Kamau Kariuki speaks during Fixing the Nation breakfast show on July 20 /SCREENGRAB
While most candidates traversed Ol Kalou constituency in convoys and with well-funded campaign teams in the recent parliamentary by-election, Timothy Kamau Kariuki relied on a donkey to reach voters.
The People's Renaissance Movement candidate says the animal became his campaign vehicle because it was all he could afford in a contest widely viewed as one of the most expensive in recent history.
His modest campaign translated into just 51 votes in the closely watched July 16 contest, despite the by-election recording an impressive 57 per cent voter turnout.
Kariuki was among seven of the nine candidates who polled fewer than 200 votes out of the 41,656 ballots cast in the election won by Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) candidate Sammy Douglas Kamau Waweru, popularly known as Ngotho.
Waweru garnered 35,440 votes, while UDA candidate Samuel Muchina Nyagah finished second with 5,450 votes.
Speaking to NTV on Monday after the election, Kariuki said he had neither the resources nor the financial muscle to mount a campaign comparable to those of his rivals.
Instead, he turned to the one asset he already owned.
"My campaign budget was very simple; I had only to ride the donkey and feed it, cut the hooves and buy it deworming medicine. Simple," he said.
"Like sometimes when I'm talking to you, there's grass there, it will feed."
Kariuki said the donkey normally helps him hawk milk and plough his farm, but the campaign trail presented an entirely different challenge.
He said his unusual mode of transport attracted curiosity and sympathy from residents, especially in an election where candidates and political parties were perceived to have deployed enormous resources.
Some residents, he said, even shared with him part of the money they had received from wealthier candidates, enabling him to occasionally hire a motorcycle to cover longer distances.
"I believe you have to work within your means and for someone to help you, you must have shown some effort. So, as I was walking with that donkey, at some point I could find some women who had been given handouts by the other giant parties. They gave me some Sh200, Sh300, and I could fuel the motorbike," he said.
He said the same women often bought him lunch during his long days on the campaign trail.
He revealed that residents' support went beyond financial help.
Whenever campaign mobilisers working for rival candidates left after distributing handouts, residents would sometimes invite Kariuki to address the gatherings.
He recalled one such incident after a competitor had distributed water pipes to prospective voters.
"This guy left and immediately they gave me a call — come, there are some people; we are aware you are not able to call such kind of a meeting, come talk to them," he said.
Kariuki described his bid as largely a one-man campaign, although party members and friends occasionally helped him print campaign materials.
He was also loaned a motorcycle, leaving him to meet only the fuel costs.
With the motorcycle and his donkey, he said, he managed to campaign across all five wards, although he estimated he reached only about 30 per cent of Kanjuiri Ward.
The experience, he said, exposed him to the huge financial demands of elective politics in the country.
"First, campaign is expensive and it needs a lot of money. I didn't know that when I was going into campaign because you need logistics," he said.
The terrain also proved challenging. Navigating steep, muddy roads with either a donkey or a motorcycle became nearly impossible whenever it rained.
"When it rains, you have to call it a day," he said, adding that the challenge convinced him that he would need a vehicle if he contests another election.
Despite the setbacks, Kariuki believes the campaign left him with an encouraging lesson about voters.
"People and the citizens at large are getting aware and I'm happy that they are educated. Despite you giving them handouts, they don't make decisions regarding those handouts. That's one thing I'm so happy about... they are really determined to see change in life."
