Blow to democracy as chaos mars primaries

Othaya parliamentary aspirant Mary Wambui was among those who lodged complaints over nominations anomalies. She was later handed the TNA certificate.  [PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO/STANDARD]

By Stephen Makabila

NAIROBI; KENYA: The flawed nominations in major political parties and failure by internal party tribunals to handle disputes have raised doubts on the state of democracy.

“Nurturing of democracy should start right within political parties, which have failed in this regard going by the nomination mess and even failure by internal party tribunals to resolve the mess,” notes political analyst Peter Kagwanja.

For the sake of democracy, Prof Kagwanja further notes it would be prudent for the IEBC to oversee party nominations, an option most parties have avoided.

“Performance in primaries has a direct bearing on the legitimacy of the final elections, as they determine the quality of leadership and character of the government to be established,” adds Kagwanja, president of the African Policy Institute.

All leading political parties, among them ODM, TNA, URP, UDF, New Ford-Kenya and the Wiper Democratic Movement had nomination hitches.

“By internal party tribunals failing to clear the mess of party election boards, it calls for an establishment of an independent tribunal to handle nomination disputes in future elections,” Kagwanja says.

Moi University Communications lecturer Masibo Lumala notes that while the option of IEBC overseeing party nominations would be a noble one, political parties are held hostage by some factors that make it hard to seek the commission’s hand in the nominations.

“Most parties avoid engaging the IEBC partly because of the cost implications, the issue of timing because all of them settle for the last day and party interests such as direct nominations for special candidates,” says Lumala.

The chairman of the Centre for Multi-Party Democracy (CMD) Justin Muturi argues that while the level of democracy in political parties was wanting, nominations could be improved by keeping to the set electoral timelines.

Earlier in the week, IEBC received a barrage of complaints arising from last week’s political party nominations. IEBC received 110 complaints from across the country by Wednesday morning and started hearing and processing them the following day, Thursday.

The complaints presented before IEBC Disputes Resolution Committee headed by Commissioner Thomas Letangule paint a classic picture of what has been described as shambolic primaries.

The nominations held Thursday and Friday last week culminated in violence and destruction of property in some parts of the country and there was a lot of complaints of nepotism and discrimination.

IEBC concerns

On the two nomination days, IEBC through its Corporate Communication Manager, Tabitha Mutemi, was forced to disown the confusion.

 “Our attention is drawn by the public appearing in media blaming IEBC for delay in delivering nomination election materials. We wish to inform members of the public that the ongoing elections are being conducted by political parties and not IEBC,” said Mutemi.

Mutemi in a statement dispatched to media houses noted the IEBC only monitored the process to ensure compliance.

And the IEBC committee has heard disputes from the United Democratic Forum (UDF), The Kenya National Congress (KNC), Narc, Kanu, The United Republican Party (URP), Ford-Kenya and Wiper Democratic Movement, The National Alliance (TNA), and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

Letangule from the beginning indicated the committee of five was ready to handle the disputes within seven days provided and make radical decisions on case-by-case basis. “We will try to do our best to adjudicate, we have the law on our side and we know what should be done and issue appropriate remedies. We will not shy away from revoking nominations that we feel were not correctly done, it does not matter if the party will have a candidate or not,” he added.

He urged that all complainants to ensure they had exhausted all their internal party dispute resolution mechanisms.

At party levels, New Ford-Kenya received seven complaints at parliamentary level, and 13 at county wards’ level before its internal party tribunal chaired by lawyer John Kamunya Karanja.

The NFK tribunal nullified nomination results in Kimilili and Kiminini constituencies, but upheld results in Kabuchai, Bumula, Mt Elgon, Kanduyi, and Kwanza constituencies. Within ODM, the Election Board chairman, who is the Roads Minister Franklin Bett, indicated the process was clear in 44 counties, but there has been uproar across Nyanza Province and in Nairobi. Bett on Thursday indicated he had nullified all party certificates for Nyanza and parts of Western.

One of the complaints against ODM at the IEBC is from Uriri Constituency by Kisia Ojowi, a candidate of the Party of Independent Candidates of Kenya.

For TNA, former Maragwa, MP Elias Mbau is among   aspirants with complaints against the party at the IEBC. TNA’s Mary Wambui of Othaya   had also filed a dispute case with the committee after her name was found missing from the TNA list of nominees.