Sorry, Uhuru to his supporters

Procurement blunders largely contributed to Friday’s mass failure of Jubilee party nominations leading to cancellation of the exercise affecting 21 counties.

But President Uhuru Kenyatta wore a brave face Saturday morning, blaming “under preparedness” for the shocking mess that the exercise became across the country on Friday.

Sources within the party indicate that a faction of the national secretariat had taken charge of a Sh300 million ballot paper printing deal and controlled vital information from majority of the officials. Although this was carried on the guise of ensuring security and credibility of the ballot papers, some felt the party chiefs were sidelining them so as to reap maximum from the lucrative deal.

Jubilee had also contracted a private logistics firm to distribute the ballot papers that are said to have been ordered from abroad and arrived on the eve of the polls.

The party with about 8 million registered members had only printed just less than 3 million ballot papers or about 30 per cent of the required material.

Yesterday, President Kenyatta convened a press conference at State House, Nairobi and apologised for the fiasco even as he put on a brave face.

Uhuru said they did not expect such huge voter turnout hence the inadequacy of ballot materials became a challenge at the polling stations.

He reckoned Jubilee’s democratic will to deliver free, fair and credible elections, saying he is ready to go by the will of his supporters at the primaries. Uhuru was accompanied by his Deputy William Ruto, Secretary General Raphael Tuju and Jubilee board chairman Andrew Musangi.