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Residents receive goodies from the government during the Ol Kalou by-election campaigns. [File, Standard]
Scripture has a phrase reserved for the collapse of false gods: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon.” It is not merely an announcement of defeat. It is a verdict — a declaration that a kingdom which once seemed unshakeable has been weighed and found wanting. This week, Ol Kalou wrote its own version of that verdict.
A parliamentary seat fell vacant. Candidates entered the field, but the real contest was between two: the ruling party, UDA, and the opposition DCP. Underneath the contest of names and parties lay an older battle: could money still purchase a people’s loyalty? UDA answered with confidence — billions proudly poured into rallies, structures, and rented influence, a seat treated as though it were for sale to the most determined bidder. It was Mammon’s evangelism at full volume.
And Mammon lost. Not narrowly, but by a landslide — the DCP candidate outpolling his UDA rival nearly seven votes to one. Ol Kalou, the constituency where UDA was born as a political force, became the place where that same machinery was buried by ballot.
