Together with Paul Muite, they were the unwanted guests, the
gatecrashers if you wish. They even had different podiums from the rest
but when last night's first ever Kenyan presidential debate was over,
Mohamed Dida (ARK presidential candidate) was the star attraction,
everyone's talking about him, he poked and threw dust in the eyes of
Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.
The 39-year-old former teacher at Lenana School was the clear winner of
the debate. Not that he had anything new or different from the rest, but
in terms of the reaction he received during and after. His idea of
getting people to eat only when they are hungry and to leave room for
water and air is in contention with Raila Odinga's "You cannot run the
country via skype" for quote of the night.
But who is this man
Mohamed Dida. First, he’s the youngest presidential candidate, a decade
younger than Peter Kenneth who's 48. Second, he has three wives and 11
children.
When he gets to State House, he told Daily Nation, all his wives will bear the title “First Lady”.
“They
will all become First Ladies by virtue of being married to the same
man, unless the Constitution has something else,” said Mr Dida in an
interview with the Nation.
Mr Dida added that he had no problem managing his family time, because, he has everything planned.
“As
a Muslim I’m entitled to marry four (wives), but I’m married to three.
One is Amina, a banker, the other, Estail, works with the World Health
Organisation and there’s Rukia who is a housewife,” said the
presidential candidate for the Alliance for Real Change.
They say,
many hands make light work easier, and Mr Dida can testify that having a
polygamous marriage has made the exhausting campaigns more bearable.
“One
of my wives takes care of the family finance, one takes care of
secretarial work in these campaigns, and one takes care of the
children,” he added. That division of labour has helped him plan his
campaigns.
Together with his three wives, they discuss how the spending of the family income is shared.
Also, he gets to choose the wife to accompany him to different parts of the country.
Mr Dida, who comes from Wajir County, picks Rukia when he’s going to North Eastern, because “she’s very good in Kisomali”.
When
his campaign heads to the cosmopolitan towns, his choice is Estail “who
originates from Kajiado and is good in English”, and then he has to
pick Amina if he’s going to a place where there’s a lot of politics do
be done in Kiswahili.
“All of them are educated, but they have traits that fit certain counties that I go to. At times we all go,” said Mr Dida.
He
sure is a guy with a sense of humour and doesn't respect the status
quo, he is here to change it and even if he won't win - let's be honest,
he won't - he will ride to the sunset with a big smile on his face.
To honour the good work Dida did in
ensuring a lively debate, Kenyans came up with more jokes to add on what
Dida had already given us. Below are some of them, plus other general
ones concerning the debate.
"You know you wont win if you're standing behind a weird podium"
"Uhuru is sure migingo is in kenya because he has the title deed"
"Dida: Eat when you're hungry"
"Today you are still cleaning feet of jiggers and teaching kids to wash hands. All those years, where were you?" DIDA
Linus: How old is your party.. Dida: our ideas are old
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Oohh who is that Man, Mohamed Dida.
9:22 AM
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