When the government owned all watches, radios and elections

Pictures of candidates, all smiles posing with returning officers after presenting their nomination papers to the electoral agency after being cleared to contest various seats are all over the place.

There was a time civil servants acted as returning officers. This was during an epoch when citizens paid licences to the government to listen to their radios in peace. Those who did not, lost the precious items to chiefs.

The radio acted as the village timekeeper but the District Commissioner owned the time in all the hamlets and acted as master of ceremony during political rallies and owned the time when he received nomination papers from prospective MPs.

At the height of the single-party system, veteran politician, Kimani Wanyoike tested Kanu's resolve when he presented his papers against Nyandarua DC's counsel that he was unwanted by the system.

To beat the one o'clock deadline, Wanyoike who was contesting the South Kinangop parliamentary seat had arrived at the DC's office two hours earlier. But the DC, who was the returning officer, was not ready to see him yet.

When the politician was finally ushered into the red carpet office, he found the DC flanked by the Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) and the district Special Branch (intelligence boss).

The security team members exchanged knowing glances and ceremoniously pointed at the wall clock prominently hanging on the wall above the DC's throne.

It showed it was five minutes past time one o'clock. Wanyoike protested as he too consulted his wristwatch. He was sure he was 30 minutes ahead of the deadline.

The three senior members of the district security committee however contradicted him.

Their wristwatches were synchronised with the one on the wall. After comparing the four time pieces, Wanyoike was outvoted and adjudged to be late and consequently disqualified on account of lateness.

As soon as he left the DC's office, the three men adjusted their watches to the correct time.

The same trick was played on Wanyokie again in 1995 when he contested the Kipipiri parliamentary seat which had fallen vacant following the death of incumbent Lavan Muchemi of Ford Asili.

On the material day, Wanyoike was tricked to rush to the High Court in Nyeri to quash an injunction filed to block his candidature.

He travelled to Nyeri from Nairobi only to learn there was no such case.

By the time he drove at breakneck speed to Olkalou, he was seven minutes late and was disqualified.

This gifted Paul Mwangi Githiomi of DP a golden opportunity to be elected after flooring Kanu's Christopher Maina Njiriri.