Party primaries are a party affair. Period!

Party nominations within the Kenyan electoral system have had been mired by a history filled with mistrust, violence and a charade by the loser’s in refusing to accept the results. Many of these party nominations have been cast in shoddy manners.

I do remember a time when I was the presiding officer within a polling station in Nairobi when they were choosing their nominee for the Member of Parliament. The level of corruption was sporadic and the threats were forceful and intimidating. However, the low voter turnout within some areas for the primary showed the apathy that many citizens tend to have towards the voting of their party nominees. With only 16 people having cast their votes I ended up declaring those results (though there were a number of other centre’s that had cases of rigging and highly inflated results).

Cases such as those I experienced are not new phenomena to anyone that has handled an election or party primary. However, the main question to be observed is how will the current nomination pan out and will it be a key indicator as to how the election in 44 days shall be? Will the parties face a shock in the nomination process when party big-wigs fall to the wayside of newbie’s? Shall the defeated nominees accept defeat or defect to smaller parties?

Logistical nightmares are the norm of the day across all party lines. Massive delays within the electoral process today should firstly not be passed onto the IEBC. The buck stops with the parties and they should have prepared their elections accordingly.  Parties must ensure democracy prevails, no matter how little the number of voters is. Massive delays tend to hinder a number of busy people from voting in their party representatives.  Subverting democracy is the first catalyst for heightening tension. Officials must also be thoroughly vetted and party nominees must ensure that they also hire agents to monitor the ground in areas that are prone to rigging.

Why am I protecting the integrity of the IEBC? This is because if we remember the last general election it was de to the systematic and endemic failure of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) to give true and legitimate results to the election. Any whiff of incompetence on the part of the IEBC can result in their handling of the election being questioned by losers, thereby setting a bad precedence for the next general election. We must acknowledge that the party primaries remain a party affair until the general election when the nation decides who they shall appoint. Until then parties must take appropriate responsibility and blame for their mess and not pass the baton to an agency that is trying to prove its worth to Kenyans.

Any precipitation of violence within the primaries will be limited to various zones (if there are any reports of any), but shall not in my opinion be of much harm or inflict mass chaos. The perception in some areas is that if a certain candidate wins the party primary they are already one step into the positions they are fighting for due to party loyalty in certain zones. Losers will then try to defect to other minor parties and try and ensure they clinch a slot in the general election. The culture of accepting defeat has not been embedded into society. Many fail to acknowledge defeat in the face of it. Some may be justified, with their claims of not wanting to accept the outcome, but most will jump ship instantaneously.

If there is any outcome of violence it is going to be limited and contained fast. It however shall not represent the climate of the general election, in my opinion. The incident rates within the party nomination may be run by a few hired goons, but the general election on the other hand shall have more security and electoral discipline since the IEBC shall be conducting the exercise. 

However, I must commend the swift response of the Kenya Police today in a polling station in Kisumu where there were some levels of violence that resulted in the station being closed and a continent of nearby police responded to the distress. The situation was mitigated and the violence quelled before it caused much injury.  The preparedness of the security forces in many areas was quite adequate. The true success of this election shall however be proven by the end of the day when the final tally is done.