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Winner-takes-all poll system the root cause of Kenya’s problems

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga. [Courtesy]

Last week, I wrote an article calling for proportional representation as an alternative to the winner-takes-all electoral system that we currently have. As soon as I posted the article on my Facebook page, I received 97 written responses; 90 of them extremely negative.

Friends urged me to drop this idea, saying it was unpopular. Then Margaret Thatcher’s famous words, “leadership is not a popularity contest” came to mind. Sometimes one has to take a stand when he/she believes time for change has come, whether the ideas are popular or not. It is in the nature of human beings to resist change at first.

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