NOMINATIONS AFTERMATH

Its now one week after the nominations debacle presided over by the two dominant coalitions in Kenya and almost everyone is foaming at the mouth looking for the apt adjective to describe them. For me, i would describe them as an apt lesson for all of us, i will get back to that in a while.

Alot of the favorites went through and there were surprises here and there but all in all they conformed to expectations given that in every election about 70% of incumbents always get thrown out.

So what lessons can we take from all this?
a) The IEBC needs to be super prepared since its evident the turnout will be massive and the people will not accept shoddy work. The voters are really passionate about who they want to serve them and in many areas, they were still waiting to vote as late as mid night and nerves will get freyed when people are tired. So enough polling stations will have to be provided at each centre. Any thing out of the ordinary will be seen as an attempt to manipulate the out come and the masses have shown their willingness to protest at times violently.

b) Political parties/coalitions must realise that the peoples say overides the "leaders" wishes and they are not shy about forcing it. Both sides of the devide have shown their total disregard of the will of the people, the Jubilee side atleast later realised their folly and back tracked but the Cord side seems to be stuck in the 90s KANU way of doing things and for all intents and purposes, they are more KANU than KANU itself. The upshot of this is that where the party has defied the wishes of the voters, i foresee voter apathy of sorts and this may hurt the dorminant party there.

c) Politicians need to realise that their every move is closely monitored by the voters. A carefull analysis of the fallen will show you that the voters dont like arrogance and most of the arrogant types have been rejected. From the likes of Midiwo, Anyang, to Githae and Nguyai, while the humble are embraced. The politicians/aspirants who are painting themselves as high mnded are being swept aside, Wanjiuku wants some body who can explain to her issues in a language she understands not jurgon. Case in point, Waititu Vs Mbaru.

d) All of us need to get involed in the affairs of our parties as alot of policies and procedures are being formulated now at this level and their effects may be huge. Case in point is the ODM debacle regarding the choice of their ticket holder for Nairobi Senator. Though its abhorrent what the party has done to Elizabeth Ongoro in denying her the chance to vie and handed it to Margaret Wanjiru, a carefull scrutiny on the party constitution reveals that they are withing their right to do so and every member of the party has signed to these absurd rules. This same rule has been used to hand certificates to the likes of Kajwang, Nyong'o, Midiwo etc.

These elections need to be approached with a sober mind and we need to scrutinise and interogate all pronouncements by politicians and quiz them accordingly. When they say that they will build 100 dams in two years, get them to tell you where the funds will come from and the details of it all. All in all, if we ask tham the tough questions, they will atleast not make empty promises.

In the end, please remind your polician friend the recall clause becomes active after two years and if they don't deliver, we will not wait for two years but we will instead through them out early.