Cash, mattresses, boats, gas cylinders: Inside the high-stakes battle for Ol Kalou MP seat

As the July 16, 2026, parliamentary by-election draws closer, the quiet, agricultural town of Ol Kalou in Nyandarua County has been transformed into a bustling marketplace as heavyweight politicians, government technocrats and busybodies troop to the constituency bearing all manner of goodies - and brazen audacity.

Unlike the region's famous potatoes or dairy products, what appears to be tragically on sale here is the very democratic rights of its citizens, as politicians allied to the ruling party storm their way through town, whipping up clouds of dust, cutting thorough markets and tearing up the tarmac as they jostle for attention, while at the same time seemingly trading top-dollar for that all-important vote.

On Tuesday, July 7, Nakuru East Member of Parliament David Gikaria made no mistake of his high-stakes overtures in the usually humdrum region, publicly enunciating his activities, endeavors, financial breakdowns and political infrastructure.

While addressing a crowd of residents, Gikaria openly defended his 'cash-for-ID’ mobilisation, dismissing claims that his team’s insistence on retaining voters’ IDs was intended to manipulate the electoral process, saying the exercise was aimed at ensuring campaign resources reached registered voters within polling stations assigned to his campaign team.

“Yesterday alone, right here among you, I spent Ksh.1.2 million. I did not chase anyone away. Was anyone sent away from the meeting? I said those who had come, even if they had not been invited, should stay,” Gikaria said in remarks captured in the now-viral video.

The legislator said campaign coordinators were asking for National Identity cards to confirm whether beneficiaries were registered in polling stations allocated to his team.

“I have been assigned Gedhima and Nyakiambi polling stations… That is why they are asking for your ID,” he said, rejecting allegations that the exercise was intended to interfere with the electoral process.

Gikaria further claimed his campaign had been allocated Ksh.250,000 for daily activities, saying the funds were earmarked for specific polling stations under his coordination.

The MP's unrestrained remarks immediately drew controversy and condemnation from Kenyans, with many viewing it as the legislator's open admission of voter bribery, bathed in political jargon and honey-laced electioneering terminology.

Many wondered why a Member of Parliament was required to walk around with millions of shillings per day, gather random crowds, wantonly dish out the cash and still come back tomorrow with more millions, and still expect nothing in return for the investment.

X user James Kamau wrote, "We are officially a banana republic. The IEBC is watching voter bribery unfold in plain sight and doing absolutely nothing about it. This is the same IEBC we’re supposed to trust with a free and fair election in 2027. We are so cooked."

Another user wrote, "They are not even hiding it anymore. Coming with bundles of money to buy voters so they would vote for their candidate. That's not democracy. This is clearly an electoral malpractice. Failed system of governance leads to such circumstances! IEBC must answer to this!"

Gakaria's remarks came just a day after various government ministries, in full coordination of the Cabinet Secretaries or Principal Secretaries in charge, distributed free government-branded mattresses and brand-new LPG cylinders, as videos and photos from Ol Kalou showed potential voters queuing for the freebies, as women walked away with gas cylinders atop their heads and men strapped their goodies on their motorbikes.

Former Deputy President and Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua, whose candidate Sammy Kamau Ngotho is also in the race for the much-coveted parliamentary seat, took issue with what he viewed as daylight bribery, alleging that residents of Ol Kalou were being asked to surrender their national identity cards in exchange for governmental handouts.

In a statement shared on his X account on Tuesday, Gachagua claimed that the alleged activity is part of a broader scheme to prevent eligible voters from participating in the upcoming poll.

"Reports reaching me from Ol Kalou are that residents are being asked to surrender their identity cards in exchange for a free gas cylinder and a GoK-branded mattress. This is a scheme to deny you the opportunity and right to vote on the by-elections of 16th July 2026," he wrote.

Gachagua urged residents not to hand over their identification documents, emphasizing that the national ID is essential for voter identification during elections.

"Please don't surrender your Identity Card to anyone. Let the Government and UDA campaigners give you the gas cylinder and a GoK mattress," he added.

Additionally, Gachagua encouraged residents to accept any development projects or donations being offered that have not been delivered to Ol Kalou since independence, but cautioned them against exchanging their constitutional right to vote.

Following the passing of long-serving lawmaker David Njuguna Kiaraho earlier this year, the race to fill his seat devolved into an aggressive campaign of transactional politics as Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and a procession of senior government officials crisscrossed Ol Kalou Constituency with a frequency and intensity that is almost unprecedented.

In a display of staggering cynicism, pundits have noted that political operatives are exploiting economic hardships, treating vulnerable voters not as stakeholders in a democratic process, but as consumers who can be bought out for the price of a pillow, and pocketed in exchange for a few hundred shillings.

In a past article touching on the topic, columnist Wilfred Nshekantebirwe of Uganda's Daily Monitor wrote about voter bribery, opining that:

"Voters wait with expectation, not for ideas, but for handouts. The vote has been cheapened, defiled, and stripped of its democratic worth. In this distorted theatre, the highest bidder takes all, while meritocracy is suffocated and integrity becomes the first casualty.

When internal elections become a contest of money rather than merit, the quality of leadership is fatally compromised. We are no longer selecting visionaries, patriots, or servant leaders, we are recruiting the wealthiest manipulators with the means to corrupt the system and the motivation to recoup their investment once in office."

Keen Kenyans have also noted that Ol Kalou, unlike past by-election activities in constituencies like Emurua-Dikir, Malava and Mbeere North, has witnessed an incredibly mighty political blitz, as the government appears overly keen on capturing the seat, reasserting its position in Central Kenya and vanquishing Gachagua's stranglehold of the region. 

What started as an innocuous launch of the hitherto dead Nyahururu railway line birthed a plethora of prominent visits which turned the constituency into a political tinderbox, and attracted widespread criticism from opposition leaders and political commentators who pointed out that most of these projects were languishing for years and then suddenly started to have an urgency after the announcement of the by-election.

Within mere months, the people of Ol Kalou have reaped massively; the Engineer–Ol Kalou–Nyahururu road upgrading, rehabilitation and tarmacking of roads in Ol Kalou town, acceleration of the Last Mile Electricity Connectivity Programme, the launch of three Digital Hubs by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy and more. 

Writing in the People Daily, Ndiritu Wanjiru wrote: "It’s becoming a referendum on whether or not the visible government development can convert to electoral support or if voters will move past the last-minute projects and make their decisions based on their overall political view."