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NAIROBI. – Once a street child in Kenya and a grave digger in the UK, George Wajackoyah has become a political sensation by running for Kenya’s presidency on a promise to turn the East African nation into a major exporter of marijuana, snake venom and hyenas’ testicles, although many question the feasibility of his plans.

The 63-year-old professor, who has a background in law, has proved to be the most eccentric of the four presidential candidates contesting the 9 August election.

Polls have ranked the Roots Party candidate a poor third – the latest one, released on 11 July, gives him just 4 percentof the vote.

But pundits say that for a first-time contestant he is doing well and the two front-runners will be worried about shedding even a single vote to him as the poll predicts a tight contest, putting veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga on 43 percent and Deputy President William Ruto on 39 percent.

“Wajackoyah is running on an outrageous platform that would ordinarily be laughed out of town, but there is no doubt that he has captured the imagination of angry, disaffected youth in both urban and rural Kenya, cutting across all the regular ethnic, regional and party lines,” writes Macharia Gaitho, a leading columnist with Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper. – BBC.com