According to our Constitution, all sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya and shall be exercised only in accordance with this Constitution.
However, if you ask me, this should read: All sovereign power belongs to the political parties of Kenya and shall be exercised only in accordance with their will.
Why? Because our political parties have been forcing candidates on mwananchi to elect.
When I peer with an eye of knowledge, I realise that while the citizens hold the elections’ tail, the institutions called political parties hold the head. They decide everything for mwananchi. Thus, the citizens have lost their constitutional power to elect leaders of their choice.
For example, in highly publicised six by-elections of December 15, 2020; seven by-elections of March 4, 2021 and the one that happened yesterday, March 18, 2021, we saw leaders from as far as Western Kenya travel to the coast while others came from coast to upcountry to campaign for candidates they knew little about.
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We saw politicians such as Bonny Khalwale, Senator for Kakamega County, former Machakos Senator Johnston Muthama and Belgut MP Nelson Koech advising Msambweni voters that Feisal Bader was a better leader than Omar Boga
SETTLE SCORES
Similarly the likes of Edwin Sifuna, Junet Mohamed and Babu Owino also from bara were at hand to convince Msambweni constituents that Omar Boga was a performer compared to Feisal Bader.
And that is not all. Some political parties have been accused of nominating candidates in order to settle scores. In the Machakos senatorial by-election which happened yesterday, for instance, there have been allegations that Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka supported Kavindu Muthama - not because she is the choice of the party members - but in order to humiliate Johnstone Muthama for challenging his (Kalonzo) tigritude in Ukambani.
This supposition has it that Kalonzo and Wiper Party are just taking the battle to Muthama’s political croft. In 2017, Kavindu went for Machakos Woman Representative under the Jubilee Party banner and lost to Joyce Kamene.
Like other parties, Wiper brought outsiders into the party nominations in an attempt to fall their opponents—that is the reason Muthama left the party in a huff. Whether that political strategy works for them is their business, but all indications are it’s not democratic
Not to say that Kavindu isn’t fit to be senator—nope. The fact is the Machakos electorate has a narrow choice away from their political honcho Kalonzo. This is not unique to Kalonzo. ODM party suffers an underlying condition on candidate imposition.
POPULAR CONTROL
I have also seen another evil in this country. Political parties are autocratic but they have concentrated an oligarchy system where they decide who is to be whom without the regularised mechanism of popular control.
As such, to gain more control, political parties a have formed an oligarchy. In the recent by-elections, we saw political parties withdrawing from competitive elections to enable their friend party candidate to win unopposed.
For example, ODM opted out of Machakos senatorial by-election to give Wiper party advantage—intimating that they have had a good relationship with Wiper and therefore they need not compete with them. The question is, what if the leader that Machakos people wanted was the one who eyed the ODM nomination?
Notwithstanding, ODM supported Kavidu in the spirit of NASA and BBI, according to a statement made by ODM Director of Communications Philip Etale. The Machakos ODM branch officials had some other ideas, but the ODM national officials overrode them.
Similarly, the Jubilee Party withdrew from Msambweni by-election to give ODM an advantage, a move that was coldly contested by part of the Jubilee leadership. Consequently, the elections were won by an independent candidate who was supported by the deputy president. In London Ward, Nakuru County, ODM withdrew their candidates to allow Jubilee to face-off with UDA.
As such, what is presented to the people on the ballot is first the political parties’ choices; then, political parties dictate that choices must be accepted unquestionably.
Whereas such autocracy in our political parties can quicken decision-making and give political parties control over their operations and processes, such politics is undemocratic. In fact, it is akin to institutional dictatorship.
Conclusion: The political parties are to blame for imposing candidates on the electorates, sometimes leading to bad leadership.
