'Soft life' to 'Smairo ni tiki': here are some of the most interesting campaign slogans and symbols

Most of these campaigns, spearheaded by political aspirants, have had what would be considered a successful run while others did not.

All kinds of unconventional tactics were employed to woo voters, among them the promise by Mwangi wa Iria to provide every single Kenyan citizen with a cow, to an assured loan of Ksh 500,000 to every newly weds by Alfred Mutua and the most prominent one the legalization of bhang by George Wajackoyah.

Not far from that, other candidates opted to come up with catchy phrases and slogans that they would easily be identified with while traversing the country.

A plethora of interesting slogans were invented. We look at a number of them:

In late April 2022, Kirinyaga governor aspirant Wangui Ngirici sent Kenyans on a spiral after she posted a zoomed in shot of a purple ombre lip and a diastema which she revealed as her symbol to be used on the ballot paper.

This was accompanied by a matching and equally astonishing “Smairo ni tiki” campaign slogan to boot. She wasted no second as a few billboards in Kirinyaga were subsequently seen hoisting the symbol.

Despite it being different from the usual ‘serious’ headshot politicians use, Kenyans eventually warmed up to it.

Crossing counties to Nairobi, Hazi Njibo who is vying for an MCA seat in Kilimani ward invoked some giggles from Kenyans who came across his banners.

His 'Soft life' slogan sparked a flock of comments on Twitter timelines with most lauding the 'creativity'.

"I saw this and laughed out - in their best capacity, this candidate knew that is exactly what speaks to the Kilimani people!" wrote Darline Maiga on Twitter.

Elsewhere in the Mt.Kenya region,  Nyeri Town Mp Ngunjiri Wambugu has been traversing the region seeking a re-election under the name 'KabaKameko'.

The name originated residents nicknaming him Kameko, referring to the his short stature likening him to the small gas cylinder commonly known as 'meko' in colloquial language.

Ngunjiri opted to use the name as he saw it easily relatable to most people.

Party symbols.

Similarly the use of outrightly hilarious symbols was used by independent presidential candidates after the IEBC gazetted names of those who had shown interest to vie for various seats in the polls.

Some of the symbols images included baboons, shaving machine, headphones, wi-fi router, sufuria, bananas, avocado, tortoise, tick, among many others.

Among some of the candidates who were seeking to vie in the August polls used the following interesting symbols:

1. Kiprono Felix (Baboon)

2. Oganga Stephen Owoko (Showerhead)

3. Ndekerere Joseph Kundu (Zebra)

4. Neto Bernard (Iron box)

5. Omar Nazlin Omar Fazaldin (ATM card)

6. Ouma Pigbin Odi Mwengu (Shaving machine)

7. Mwarania Paul Muriungi (Binoculars)

8. Mbugua Benson Mwaura (Catapult)

9. Otieno Duncan Oduor (Spectacles)

10. Githii David Muhia - (Electric switch)

11. Ngechu Moses Gichuki (Degree)

12. Masira Erastus Nyamera (Scorpion)

13. Jeremiah Nixon Kukubo (Horn)