• The November 2025 by-elections, which saw the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) sweep most parliamentary and ward seats despite low voter turnout and reports of violence, cemented UDA’s dominance in Mt. Kenya East, Rift Valley, and Western Kenya, reinforcing President Ruto’s political base.

Should democracy be our master, or are we supposed to be masters of democracy? This is the piercing question posed by political analyst Dr. Michael Ndonye, who in a recent column in The Standard Newspaper interrogates the impact of Kenya’s by-elections on the ordinary mwananchi.

A screengrab of the Political Chessboard Column on the Standard Newspaper.

He argues that while by-elections are constitutionally mandated, their outrageous cost and politicisation raise a deeper democratic dilemma. To him, these contests resemble muscle-flexing matches where millions of shillings are poured into campaigns, projects stall, and citizens gain little in return.

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“The recently concluded by-elections were more of a staging show of political might than filling vacancies,” he observes, drawing parallels to the tense years when William Ruto, then Deputy President, clashed with his former boss Uhuru Kenyatta.

At the time, by-elections became mini referenda, with stalled projects and millions spent to prove dominance. Today, he argues, the same script is replayed, with Ruto’s government and the United Opposition treating these polls as a dress rehearsal for 2027.

According to Dr Ndonye, the elected leaders will not refund taxpayers for the money spent sponsoring their campaigns; instead, Kenyans are left with stalled development, inflated costs, and the burden of financing political theatre.

The November 2025 by-elections, which saw the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) sweep most parliamentary and ward seats despite low voter turnout and reports of violence, cemented UDA’s dominance in Mt. Kenya East, Rift Valley, and Western Kenya, reinforcing President Ruto’s political base.

Yet for Dr Ndonye, the victories are less about representation and more about spectacle, leaving the lingering question: should democracy be our master, or are we supposed to be masters of democracy?

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