ANC's Musalia Mudavadi, Wiper's Kalonzo Musyoka, KANU's Gideon Moi and Ford Kenya's Moses Wetang'ula. Image: ONE ALLIANCE KENYA

One Kenya Alliance (OKA) testerday denied allegations that it was being ‘hunted’ by other political alliances ahead of next year’s General Election. The Alliance term ed as far-fetched media reports that it was keen to work with either ODM leader Raila Odinga or Deputy President William Ruto.

There have been reports that Raila and Ruto were keen to woo the four principals of OKA to form a formidable team for the elections. 

But speaking at St Mark's AIPCA during a church service in Kinamba Naivasha, Nakuru county yesterday, OKA principals: Musalia Mudavadi (Amani National Congress), Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetangula (Ford Kenya) and Gideon Moi (Kanu) maintained that they were united and ready to support one of their own in the elections.

Kalonzo said that they had not been approached by any leaders as alleged. He accused some media houses of being used by politicians to peddle lies and weaken the alliance, which is yet to name its presidential flag bearer

“No one is hunting us so that we can join them, but the truth is that we are the ones who want them to join us,” he said.

Kalonzo at the same time questioned a recent opinion poll results that placed Ruto and Raila as the leading contenders, terming them as questionable.

“These polls are sponsored by the same politicians who want to lie to the country that they are leading,” he said.

The former vice president observed that if elected to power, OKA would ensure education is free from nursery to university.  

“The ongoing politicking is worrying and is causing panic, am on
investors,” he said.

In a veiled attack targeted at ODM Raila Odinga chief and Deputy President William Ruto, Mudavadi urged Kenyans not to allow ills that were perpetuated by white colonialists to creep back through the black colonialists, presenting themselves as saviours.

“Our freedom fighters fought hard to free us from the colonialists’chains of slavery, poverty, lies, corruption, intimidation and many more ills. We should not accept to be taken back to the same chains by black colonialists, presenting themselves as saints, promising to revive an economy they have looted to the core,” he said.

Mudavadi called on Kenyans not to be hoodwinked by politics of lies and intimidation and instead be steadfast in calling leaders to account and elect men and women of integrity.

“I urge Kenyans of goodwill not to accept politics of lies and intimidation. I seek your support and together, we shall end corruption, build a vibrant economy, create jobs and put a smile on every Kenyan face,” the former Deputy Prime Minister said.

Mudavadi noted that reviving the economy will be achieved through creation of job opportunities and lowering the high taxes. On his part, Kalonzo urged the church to be open to politics and work together for a prosperous and peaceful country.

He argued that politicians should not be frowned at in church platforms for they have a shared mission as long as both play their part respectfully meant to instil ideals of a great country. “OKA leaders are an open page.

We come to church to worship and interact with fellow. Kenyans, talk matters of building our country positively and not spew hate. That is our civic duty and together with the church, we should be a one thing,” he said.

Kanu chairman Gideon Moi called on Kenyan s to be wary of leaders who are not genuine. Without naming names, he termed as questionable the behaviour and conduct of some of those seeking the top seat.

“You should ask yourself if the person seeking the presidency is trustworthy or if he can be trusted with your future,” he said.

Gideon called on the church to continue prayin g for the nation, adding that as OKA, they were united and ready to support one of their own. His sentiments were echoed by Ford- Kenya leader Moses Wetangula, who said that they would backbone of the principals for the top seat.

“As One Kenya Alliance, we are united and shall walk as one team to the Gen- eral Election as we believe that we are the solution to the challenges facing Kenyans,” he said.

Mudavadi told the worshippers to ignore leaders who peddle hate speech and incitement in their campaigns.

“Next year is critical for the country. Every electorate should vote to fight graft, ethnicity, poverty and terrorism ,” he said. People Daily

Wowzi, a Kenyan startup has announced plans to create one million gig jobs for African youth in 2022 through its online marketplace, after successfully delivering over 150,000 paid jobs in 2021.

The firm that makes scalable influencer campaigns accessible to brands and companies of any size or industry, says it plans to expand partnerships with local, regional, and multinational FMCG companies, Telcos, Banks, Creative Agencies, and Development Institutions to create job opportunities for youth.

Wowzi will create massive, distributed messaging campaigns for clients utilizing thousands upon thousands of real, everyday customers and fans who get paid to offer authentic endorsements online for the products they already love. 

The company pays out Sh5 million every week to influencers amounting to Sh260 million every year.

Speaking during the company's official launch in the East African market, Wowzi Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Brian Mogeni said companies are increasingly aligning their marketing strategies to tap into micro and nano content creators looking to monetize their social media accounts and develop sustainable income streams outside of traditional or formal  employment.

“Mobile use has become a key driver of commerce in African markets, and it’s where young people already spend their time. Youths only require lightweight remote training to master the key principles of sharing brand messages, so suddenly anyone with a phone can influence their peers through social media. Now that Wowzi has created the technology platform to efficiently distribute and manage job offers to thousands of youth at a time, brands have an opportunity to engage directly with youth and offer meaningful gig work. Wowzi offers a new layer of advertising for brands that can help target niche communities.” he said.

East Africa has 20 million social media users according to Hootsuite Digital 2021 Data Report.

Kenya leads the pack with  11 million social media users, 20.2 percent of the population followed by Tanzania at  5.4 million users representing 8.9 percent of the population while  Uganda has about 3.4 million social media users representing 7.3 percent of the population.

“Emerging markets are low trust environments, and so the messenger really matters. An endorsement online from someone you really know goes a lot farther than a celebrity endorsement, for example. As a result, nano and micro influencers with smaller, more intimate and engaged followers deliver better qualified sales leads. And everyone has influence” he added.

Nano influencers are social media users with 250 to 5000 followers. Engagement on posts by nano-influencers is nearly 3 times  higher than celebrity personalities” he explained.

The firm has signed up 60, 000 influencers in the East African Region primarily by word of mouth so far and has carried out 10,000 campaigns for over 150 clients.

“In September 2021, Safaricom engaged a small “army” of influencers to create TikTok videos about a new product. Within seven hours of going live, the challenge generated 3 million views for the hashtag with thousands of user-generated posts. Within 1 week, the hashtag garnered 8million views,” he explained. “Those are campaign results that would not have been possible previously had Safaricom only been able to manually engage a dozen influencers directly for the same campaign.”

Mogeni announced the firm plans to enter three new markets including Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa over the next month.

Bank Kenya Chief Executive Jeremy Awori served as the Chief Guest at Thursday’s launch said “‘Often, when we speak about influencers, we think about the big celebrity names and forget the local micro-influencers who connect with our audience especially those outside the cities.

These micro-influencers live among them, speak their language and share in their beliefs, therefore increasing chances of conversion. We also need to pursue strategic partnerships between the private and public sector in order to achieve the growth that we seek through this channel,’ Jeremy Awori, Managing Director, Absa Bank Kenya.

He further noted the need to achieve a balance between legacy and new media to reach a diverse audience through the media they consume.www.wowzi.co  ABC