Meet ‘Wapantis’, political aspirant with strange nickname
Thought you’ve heard all the fancy nicknames that Kenyans aspiring to political office have come up with? Think again.
From Kiambu comes one Kiongo Wapantis who wants to be the next Member of County Assembly (MCA) of Township ward in Kiambu County.
According to his Facebook page, Mr David Kiongo Kamande studied at Starehe Boyz (sic) Center then later joined Kenyatta University.
For a start the name (boyz) of his former school is evidently misspelled. But maybe it is his way of attracting more youthful votes.
According to his Facebook profile, this political aspirant, who intends to run a Jubilee Party ticket, also owns a company a company called Kiongo wa Pantis Company Limited which sells women’s underwear.
Political nicknames have lately become an effective way of political aspirants to market themselves. Some politicians such as Nairobi Senator Gideon Mbuvi aka Sonko and Kiambu Senator Paul Kimani (wa Matangi) are best identified with their respective nicknames.
The nickname bug also seems to have bitten women politicians such as Nairobi Woman Representative, Rachael Shebesh, who goes by the name Manzi wa Nai (which loosely translates to Nairobi’s lady).
Other women aspirants in Nairobi have also taken the cue from Ms Shebesh with Ms Millicent Omanga using the nickname Msupa na Works and Msupa na Kazi (loosely translates to a beautiful lady who is good at her work). Another woman political aspirant, Ms Wangui Ng’ang’a, is otherwise known as Miss B Tosha.
Unlike the women whose nicknames have a connotation to beauty, the choice of the nickname is rather strange because it simply means Kiongo “of women’s underwear.”
But with the General Elections around the corner we are sure to see more eye-popping nicknames being coined by political hopefuls.
