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Ongoing construction of the Kulamawe–Garbatulla section of the 750km Isiolo–Mandera Road linking Isiolo to Mandera.
As the country moves closer to another election cycle, citizens will begin witnessing a familiar transformation that has very little to do with sudden policy efficiency and everything to do with political preservation. Roads that residents have complained about for an entire term will begin receiving emergency attention.
Constituency graders that had disappeared will resurface. Earthmovers will begin working on feeder roads that connect villages, markets, and schools. The repairs will make movement easier, and people will appreciate that relief, yet the timing will expose the real driver behind the activity — votes are approaching.
This pattern has repeated itself across election cycles with remarkable consistency. Areas that had written letters, held barazas, and tagged leaders online about impassable roads will suddenly find contractors on site.
Health services will begin reflecting similar urgency. Public hospitals that have struggled with drug shortages will start receiving supplies again. Patients who had grown used to being handed prescriptions to purchase outside will begin accessing medicine within hospital pharmacies. SHA approvals that previously took weeks will start moving faster. Surgical backlogs will reduce slightly. Clinics that operated with skeletal staffing will begin seeing more personnel on duty.
Security concerns
Mothers seeking maternal care will notice the shift quickly. Basic delivery supplies will be available. Laboratory services will run more consistently. Ambulances that were grounded due to fuel shortages will begin operating again. These improvements will save lives in real time, and communities will welcome them wholeheartedly.
Education support will also expand with similar timing. Constituency bursaries will be released more generously and more quickly. Secondary school principals will confirm disbursements that have been delayed for the entire academic term. University students will see HELB follow-ups handled with unusual speed. Leaders will hold public ceremonies distributing cheques to students while cameras roll.
Local administration will reawaken in ways citizens know too well. Chiefs and assistant chiefs who had become distant figures will begin convening community meetings more regularly.
They will move through villages addressing land disputes, family conflicts, and security concerns with renewed urgency. Crackdowns on illicit brews, petty crime, and night disturbances will intensify.
Even national government services will reflect the shift. Huduma Centre queues will move faster. ID processing will accelerate. Passport applications that had stalled will begin progressing. Government outreach programs will expand registration drives for social protection schemes — elderly stipends, disability support, and cash transfer programs.
Water projects that had stalled at the foundation level will restart. Constituency Development Fund projects that lingered as signposts without implementation will attract contractors again. Boreholes will resume drilling. School water tanks will be installed.
Youth employment initiatives will expand alongside these projects. Short-term road maintenance jobs, environmental cleanups, and digitization programs will recruit young people in large numbers.
Places of worship and funeral gatherings will also become active engagement spaces. Leaders will increase attendance, offering donations, speeches, and solidarity messages. Yet the increased visibility will align neatly with campaign timelines.
Structural transformation
What binds all these examples together is their simultaneity. None of the interventions will amount to structural transformation. Hospitals will still face systemic funding gaps. Youth unemployment will remain high.
Roads patched hurriedly will still require full reconstruction. School infrastructure shortages will persist beyond desk deliveries. Yet the clustering of activity will create the impression of a government suddenly operating at full capacity.
This is where citizens must resist political seduction.
Because the election season makeover works precisely by delivering overdue services at emotionally strategic moments. Relief softens anger. Gratitude dilutes accountability. Voters begin associating leadership with generosity rather than obligation.
Citizens must therefore hold a firm political memory. They must remember how SHA approvals delayed before this season and the billions lost to it. They must remember bursary struggles from previous years. They must remember the impassable road.
Using improved services is necessary. Appreciating relief is human. Confusing seasonal efficiency for consistent governance is where democratic judgment weakens.
Leadership should deliver services steadily across the entire term, not activate state machinery when re-election anxiety rises. Because the ultimate test of leadership does not lie in how effectively it performs when seeking votes, but in how consistently it governs when elections feel distant.
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This writer is a journalist and a human rights defender. [email protected]
