Presidency: How losers can get back to House

By WAHOME THUKU

Losers of the race for State House have found a shortcut back to Parliament following a court ruling they are eligible for consideration for nomination by their parties.

This means all the Cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament have a chance to escape the humiliation of being consigned to political oblivion once defeated since the Law already blocks them from assuming party positions after elections.

The Constitution also barred them from holding Cabinet Secretary posts if elected MPs. This also means the familiar political faces, all crammed up in the congested race for State House, could still be on television screens for a long time, unless of course rejected by their parties. This is however unlikely because though they are not the registered officials of the parties, they in actual fact are its owners and call the shots on who gets what and how the party is run.

The ruling is significant in that the State House race has in the Starting Line such political heavyweights as Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the two deputy premiers he has broken ranks with; Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Musalia Mudavadi.

Raila is the Orange Democratic Movement aspirant while Mudavadi is bearing the flag of United Democratic Front and Uhuru The National Alliance’s.

In this category also are Eldoret North MP William Ruto, Gichugu MP Martha Karua as well as Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth and Cabinet minister Moses Wetangula.

The chance to get back to Parliament also applies to those who will either step down because of a pre-election agreement with another group or even those who will opt to be running mates of a candidate who then goes ahead to lose.

But to qualify for nomination their parties must first get enough seats to give them corresponding share of the nomination slots on offer in line with its numerical strength in Parliament. Their parties must also approve their nominations.

KEY ISSUES

New electoral laws had narrowed options for losers in presidential elections and the court case sought to seal the only available route to Parliament.

The High Court dismissed the petition seeking to outlaw the nomination to Parliament of unsuccessful contenders for the presidency.

There are 12 seats available for the parties under the nomination category. They are however ideally meant to cater for special interest groups.

Parliament had rejected an amendment to the Elections Act designed to allow candidates running for President and Deputy President from contesting other positions, among them MP, Senate and Governor.

MPs, however, retained the provision that names of presidential candidates and their running mates may be included in party lists submitted to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

The Commission for Implementation of the Commission (CIC) challenged this provision in court arguing such politicians do not qualify as special interest for whom the constitution reserves the slots for.

Others in the race are former Education PS Prof James ole Kiyiapi and former legislators Raphael Tuju and Paul Muite.

It is expected the presidential candidates and their running mates would press for their names to be ranked high in their respective party lists to be accorded priority as per the law.

On defeat prominent leaders who will lose are assured of two things, Firstly, they can’t head political parties as they have already forfeited the positions in accordance wit the new Political Parties Act.

Secondly, they can’t get back to Cabinet, as that will be for non-political appointees who must also be vetted by Parliament.

High Court judge David Majanja allowed political parties to include the presidential candidates in the list of 12 nominees to represent special interests in Parliament.

CIC had in its petition argued special interests as provided under Article 97(1)(c) of the constitution meant special groups.

Political parties will be required to submit names of those they will nominate to take up the special seats when forwarding the names to IBC) in January.

WEAKEN PARTY ROLE

The parties will be required to nominate 12 persons for the special seats but the positions will eventually be dished out according to their proportion of seats in the National Assembly.

The law provides that the proposed nominees shall be picked according to the order of appearance in the list, which shall be maintained without changes for five years.

CIC had argued that the Constitution bars a President from holding any other state office. Justice Majanja however ruled that the argument did not hold any water pointing out that the constitution did not provide that the President and the deputy could not be nominated for the special seats.

Majanja said the court could not restrict the term special interest and that political parties were expected to play a critical role in the nominations. He said the courts could not weaken the political parties’ role in the appointment by classifying special interests.

USE PROXIES

He added that political party leaders had to give leadership to the institutions.

Besides using the party list presidential aspirants and party leaders are devising other means of trying to get back to the mainstream political influence.

Another plan could be to field proxies as candidates for the National Assembly and the Senate seats in particular areas. The proxies shall then step down and facilitate by-elections in which the party leaders shall be elected back to power.

Section 34(9) of the Elections Act states: “The party list may contain a name of any presidential or deputy presidential candidate nominated for an election under this Act.”