Passage of electoral laws good for country

Reports that MPs had ganged up to force through an amendment on party-hopping in the Election Offences Bill 2016 and Election Law (Amendment) Bill 2016 had threatened to throw a spanner in the works early this week.

Quite remarkably, the amendments were shelved yesterday without much ado. It was easy to see where the proponents of the clause that bars party-hopping (President Uhuru Kenyatta and CORD leader Raila Odinga) were coming from.

No doubt, this was one way, no less significant, of preserving our nascent democracy from a practice perfected by selfish, short-sighted politicians keen to self-preserve. The chaotic nature of our democracy is such that those quick to denounce sworn beliefs or switch allegiance at the snap of a finger and trumpet what they denounced a short while ago, bestride the political stage.

And over the years parties became vehicles for self-promotion and self-glorification deficient of any ideology and plan. So something that will restore respect for parties and democracy was much needed.

Yet the MPs had genuine fears; that party leaders and party operatives would short-change them in a one-shot party primary effectively locking them out of elections. That is understandable. There are those who have been short-changed before; where a nomination certificate was denied a people’s favourite and sold to the highest bidder.

But then, it would have been foolhardy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. In any case, those with misgivings about the clause on party-hopping should strive to bring about change from within. Party-hopping will not, of itself, cure the inadequacies inherent in our parties and in our democracy.

Parties are publicly funded and too many outfits masquerading as political parties deplete funds meant to build capacity and structures that ensures that parties are democratic enough and thereby contest over ideas and offer a viable alternative for both candidates and voters.