Anxiety as parties hold nominations in one day

By GEOFFREY MOSOKU

Kenya: Next Thursday political parties conduct nominations to pick candidates for seats on offer in the March 4 General Election but all indicators show the day set for what could easily pass as a mini-election could be chaotic.

The situation is compounded by the fact all the major parties and coalitions have picked the January 17 date for their primaries so as to forestall defections of losers to other parties ahead of the deadline for submitting the party candidates’ list to national electoral body the next day.

Three major alliances — Jubilee Coalition, Coalition for Reforms and Democracy, and Amani Coalition — have not printed cards, appointed agents and or even returning officers in readiness for the exercise in a week’s time.

Though for logistical reasons compounded by concentration on preparation for the March 4 election, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) may not have been available to conduct primaries for all parties on a single day, still none of them other parties ahead of the deadline for submitting the party candidates’ list to national electoral body the next day. Three major alliances — Jubilee Coalition, Coalition for Reforms and Democracy, and Amani Coalition — have not printed cards, appointed agents and or even returning officers in readiness for the exercise in a week’s time.

Though for logistical reasons compounded by concentration on preparation for the March 4 election, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) may not have been available to conduct primaries for all parties on a single day, still none of them sought its help.

This begs the question of how possibly the parties will, on their own, manage to pull off such an expensive and demanding exercise, given how ill-prepared they are currently, and the challenges posed by such prospects as interference by rival parties and shared venues for primaries.

The Registrar of Political parties, Ms Lucy Ndung’u, conceded that so far no party had invited IEBC to conduct their nomination exercise.

Technically impossible

CORD elections board chairman Franklin Bett explained that the role of IEBC in the coalition’s nominations would be only to provide party membership register but they will not be invited to conduct the nominations.

Official party rules on nominations require each party to appoint an independent national elections board but at the same time give room for external bodies such as IEBC to conduct nominations. However, inviting the electoral body may mean extra costs but at the same time it might be technically impossible at this stage due to time constraints.

“We cannot tell you how many ballot papers we have printed but the exercise will be conducted from ward level countrywide,” said an official attached to the Mr Musalia Mudavadi’s United Democratic Forum secretariat. Mudavadi is the presidential candidate for Amani coalition while Mr Uhuru Kenyatta is Jubilee flag-bearer and Mr Raila Odinga CORD’s bet for State House.

Centre for Multi Party Democracy (CMD) chairman Mr Justin Muturi blamed the clashing of dates on IEBC’S party nominations time-table, which all fall on second last day to submission of final lists.

“If we had stuck with the January 4 date of filing of membership lists, parties couldn’t have chosen January 17 to lock out losers from defecting,” Muturi said.

“Apart from the logistical nightmare, IEBC which is mandated to oversee party nominations will also be hard pressed to ensure and supervise security on that day,” he said.

The CMD boss also raised doubts of whether parties will be able to provide sufficient room for disputes, saying the timing of nominations with filing of party lists the next day deprives the candidates of right to appeal as provided for in Article 88 of the Constitution. CORD alliance has said it will allow coalition parties to nominate candidates to compete in their strongholds, then hold joint nominations in cosmopolitan areas and give room for ‘negotiated democracy’ in swing vote areas.

Raila says the situations where ‘negotiated’ democracy will be applicable will be looked at case by case in determining which areas they will apply compromise on seats available. “If for instance Orange Democratic Movement, Wiper Democratic Movement and Ford Kenya (all members of CORD) shall each field a candidate in a specific constituency in Western Province we would given UDF candidate chance to sail through. To win we must find the most popular CORD candidate to support,” Raila said. MPs have already called for the creation of a Special Police Unit to handle gender-related violence during the campaign period following the emergence of a spate of violence targeting women aspirants.

Consequently, Internal security Assistant minister Alfred Khangati has promised to address the request for the special unit when he provides the measures that the government is taking towards ensuring a smooth electioneering period.

“We need women MPs in elective positions, especially now that we have dismissed the constitutional stipulation on the gender rule, but the women aspirants must be assured that they will be granted protection in their campaigns,” said nominated MP Sophia Abdi.

Smooth learning in majority of public schools will either be grounded or disrupted too on Thursday because some schools double as polling centres or because of the noise, fanfare and cacophony on nomination day.

Wednesday, Uhuru’s The National Alliance Parliamentary Group’s meeting at the Inter-continental Hotel, Nairobi, asked the government to declare Thursday a national holiday to enable parties use schools for nomination. They also proposed that party nomination boards meet to decide on security arrangements and peaceful nominations.

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo held a meeting with top police officers drawn from all over the country to lay strategies of dealing with lawlessness even possible confrontations during the nominations exercise.