Tundu Lissu had massive rallies with gargantuan crowds as he excited all hustlers in Arusha and Dar. He wound up with 13%. Now I hear he was arrested for inciting PEV. Crowds are not useful indicator of anything- the strategic LEVERS are being cooked at Naivasha and Parliament.
If you are not at the table, know you are on the menu.
So only elected leaders are an indicator of popularity. The reality check which will hit you will be very severe it will take years for you recover
Not really- just that elected leaders are a big indicator of ground and community interest. From the Duale-Roba-Nanok presser I see genuine pastoralist grievances - especially the crossing of party ranks. Because those are their elected leaders. You can't have Raila or Mdvd holding rallies there with 10 out of 60 MPs claiming he to speak for NFD. Another good metric is credible opinion polls - from well known Ipsos, Infotrak, TIFA - not from briefcase company in London. Even better is by-election results. Mobutu despite ukora of buying out ODM candidates has some credible following in Wajir, say. He won byelections against Kanu there in 2018/9.
See? hakuna karata. Crowds and Facebook likes are hardly bankable. Rank them way below byelections, polls, leaders.
And am dying to be shell-shocked by hustler wave in Msambweni - a real road test free from spin. I haven't seen any gloating updates from Pundit so it probably looking bad.