Why governors should not be subjected to nominations

The Constitution of Kenya 2010 created elective seats some of which had been there before but the most important thing is that it created two levels of governance - the national and county governments.

In total the Kenyan electorate go to the polling booth to mark six ballot papers for president, governor, senator, Member of National Assembly, Woman Representative and Member of County Assembly.

Those six seats can be broken down to term limit elective seats and non-term limit elective seats.

Further analysis will show that the term limit seats are two, while four are non term limit seats with the President and the Governors having term limits in office while the rest do not have term limits.

The duties, functions and responsibilities of the term limit elective seats will go further to differentiate the two categories with the president performing executive duties at the national government while the governor doing the same at the county level with the non-term limit elective seats office holders doing legislative and oversight roles at their respective levels.

It is therefore my considered opinion that if the legislative office holders serve for the term of the respective houses they sit in till the next elections are held, the executive office holders should also serve till their term of office is over.

It is noteworthy that all the executive functions in the last elections were bestowed on political party candidates which is an affirmation of Kenyans belief in political parties and they should therefore serve the electorate on the term of office of a governor which is a period of two terms.

If the same political parties do not subject the president of the country to another party primary, why should they subject their respective governors to the same before the end of term of office?

Why do I propagate such an opinion? Political party candidates are elected into office on the political parties manifestos to the electorate and their promises to the public and that is why when they seek re-election they show case their achievements and what they promised to do to the electorate and they will also be judged along the same line.

It is on this strength that a political party that subjects its executive to another round of nominations has already passed a vote of no confidence in such a candidate and itself because it is running away from the same promises it made to the people and therefore do not deserve another term in office or its candidate.

Political party practices mainly in the US where the current presidential system was heavily copied from suggests that rarely do they subject their executives to primaries but they go ahead to show cases their achievements in seeking re-election.

Political parties should therefore use nominations to elect credible leaders and governors who are capable of serving as future presidents of Kenya but not small ethnic gods who will demonstrate against national governments appointments because the appointees do not come from their ethnic cocoons.