By ABDIKADIR CHARI
The race to succeed Saku MP Dido Rasso is taking shape, with four aspirants offering voters competing visions of leadership — and competing political networks to back them.
Rasso is eyeing the Marsabit governorship, leaving the parliamentary seat open and triggering an early scramble among politicians hoping to inherit his constituency base.
Among those seeking the seat is former MP Hussein Sasura, who represented Saku from 2006 to 2013 and is now attempting a political comeback.
Sasura is entering a field that has attracted former chief financial officer Halkano Wako, seasoned public servant Abdikadir Wario and young lawyer John Behailu.
The crowded field makes the race difficult to predict. In Saku, political loyalties, clan and community interests can all influence electoral calculations.
But beneath the competition for the seat lies a broader question: what kind of leadership will Saku voters choose when an incumbent moves on to pursue a higher office?
Will they favour experience and a familiar political record? Will they embrace a new generation? Or will they judge the candidates primarily on their ability to deliver development in a constituency facing persistent challenges in water, education, healthcare, roads and economic opportunity?
Sasura is betting heavily on experience.
The former legislator says he is returning to leadership because residents who remember his tenure continue to call on him to serve again.
“I am returning to leadership because the people I have served continue to call upon me to serve again. To me, the greatest endorsement a public servant can receive is the confidence of the people he or she served,” he says.
His campaign is built around a record he says includes investments in education, water and healthcare.
Education features prominently in his pitch. Sasura says he was a pioneer of the Dema Gala concept, a day-secondary-school model intended to bring secondary education closer to children while reducing the financial burden of boarding schools on families.
“Education has always been at the heart of my vision. I regard education as the greatest equaliser,” he says.
He also points to his role in introducing school buses and supporting educational and motivational trips for teachers and school administrators.
On water, Sasura says he improved Bakuli water supply, supported dams and established water pans. He cites the piping of water from Qubi Qalo borehole to Garr Qarsa and another connection from Ilman Gufu village to Qubi Qalo, as well as the provision of community water tanks and water bowsers.
Healthcare, he says, was another priority during his tenure, with new dispensaries constructed and support provided for patients requiring referrals.
His campaign is also built around a political message of inclusivity.
Sasura says public resources should be distributed fairly without discrimination on the basis of clan or tribe.
“Every community deserves dignity, representation and a fair share of development according to need and priority,” he says.
That message could prove important in a race where the candidates must navigate competing local interests while attempting to build support beyond their immediate political constituencies.
Halkano, who is making his second attempt at the parliamentary seat, is taking a different approach.
He is presenting himself as a technocrat capable of applying his corporate experience to improve the management of constituency resources.
His message is centred on education, water, youth empowerment and infrastructure, with a strong emphasis on creating opportunities for young people.
“I will work for prosperity of our people, that is based on equality and fairness whose foundation shall be built on fearless truth and guardianship,” he says.
Halkano wants at least two schools in Saku to compete with national schools such as Alliance High School and Mang’u High School.
He also proposes using links outside the constituency to support bright but needy students, in addition to relying on CDF resources.
Water remains central to his campaign.
He says he would drill water points across the constituency and work with national and county governments to address the wider infrastructure deficit.
For young people, he promises to establish a major TVET institution to provide technical and technological skills and says he would seek investment in education infrastructure.
He also wants major roads in the constituency tarmacked and says women and youth should be economically empowered.
His warning against money politics is itself revealing of the kind of campaign he wants to run.
Halkano is urging voters to consider the lobbying capacity and manifestos of candidates rather than the money they can spend, while calling on young people to avoid being used by politicians.
Wario, meanwhile, is seeking to build his campaign around community service and economic empowerment.
He argues that Saku possesses considerable human and natural potential but remains behind in critical areas such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, water and employment.
“I believe lasting change can only be achieved through partnership, accountability and empowering community to become self-reliant,” Wario says.
His pitch is supported by community initiatives he says he has undertaken through the Ebisa Empowerment Initiatives organisation.
He says the organisation has trained more than 560 young people in digital literacy, provided mechanised ploughing covering more than 520 hectares (1,284 acres) of farmland and distributed more than one million litres of water during drought emergencies.
These activities provide Wario with a political narrative that is different from simply promising what he will do if elected: he is seeking to demonstrate what he says he has already done outside elective office.
His development agenda focuses on food security, mechanised agriculture, livestock restocking, irrigation and agribusiness.
He also wants to expand opportunities for young people through digital skills, entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence, while advocating for better-equipped health facilities and greater support for women, youth and persons with disabilities.
His message is that leadership should be judged by service rather than promises.
The fourth major contender, Behailu, represents a generational shift in the contest.
The young lawyer says his decision to seek the seat followed consultations with family, clan elders, community groups and professional organisations.
“It's time for young people to bring fresh ideas and leadership,” he says.
Behailu is placing inclusivity, accountability and transformational leadership at the centre of his campaign.
Like his rivals, he sees youth empowerment and agriculture as critical to Saku's future. He wants young entrepreneurs to access opportunities through small and medium enterprises, open markets and agri-processing.
His agenda also extends beyond constituency-level projects.
He says he would lobby for the establishment of Marsabit University, a girls' rescue centre and a rehabilitation centre, while pushing for improvements to Marsabit Airstrip and the tarmacking of major roads through engagement with national and county government agencies.
The four campaigns therefore reveal an interesting convergence.
Despite their differences in age, experience and political background, all are campaigning heavily on issues that have long shaped politics in northern Kenya: water, education, roads, healthcare, youth employment and equitable development.
The real contest may consequently be about credibility — which candidate can convince voters that promises will translate into results?
Sasura has the advantage of having previously occupied the seat and can point to projects he says were initiated during his tenure.
But a comeback candidate must also persuade voters that the political circumstances that forced his exit have changed and that his return represents progress rather than a return to the past.
Halkano brings experience in financial management and has tested the waters electorally, but must convert his technocratic message into a sufficiently broad political coalition.
Wario is banking on community development work and youth and women support, but must translate that grassroots profile into votes across the constituency.
Behailu, meanwhile, is positioning himself as the face of a younger generation.
His challenge will be to turn the appeal of generational change into an electoral organisation capable of competing with more established political networks.
The clan and community equation could add another layer to the contest.
In a politically diverse constituency, candidates will need to build alliances beyond their immediate bases.
That makes endorsements, local networks and the ability to present oneself as an inclusive candidate potentially as important as individual popularity.
The race also cannot be separated entirely from the gubernatorial contest.
Rasso's decision to seek the governorship means his political networks and relationships within Saku could become part of the wider electoral equation.
The parliamentary contest and the governor's race may therefore influence each other as politicians calculate how to build alliances for both levels of leadership.
For now, however, the Saku parliamentary race remains wide open.
Four candidates are already positioning themselves, with each offering voters a different proposition: Sasura's experience, Halkano's technocratic approach, Wario's community-development record and Behailu's generational appeal.
But campaigns are won not only through compelling manifestos. They require organisation, alliances, resources and the ability to convert political goodwill into votes.
That is where the real battle for Saku will be decided.
The constituency is not simply choosing a replacement for an MP who wants to become governor.
It is deciding whether to reward experience, embrace a new generation or back a candidate who can offer a different model of leadership.
As the 2027 contest gathers momentum, the biggest question will be which of the four can turn that promise of change into a coalition broad enough to carry Saku.
