Kiraitu calls for review of primaries to improve August polls

Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi addresses journalists at Meru Slopes Hotel on April 21, 2017 regarding the cancellation of Jubilee primaries. He wants the August elections to be fair. PHOTO | PHOEBE OKALL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The senator co-chaired a joint parliamentary committee that recommended reforms to improve the IEBC.

As the curtain falls on the chaotic party primaries, Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi says the country should review the process of nominations, for a General Election to be free, fair, open and accountable.

“The mess we have witnessed is not accidental. It just shows the urgent need for us to rethink the entire political party processes," the Meru Jubilee Party governorship candidate said.

Speaking to the Nation in Nairobi, Mr Murungi argued that the election is a process, and political party nominations should be seen as part of that electoral process where the “genuine will of the people is expressed".

FINANCIAL POWER

The senator, together with his Siaya counterpart James Orengo, co-chaired a joint parliamentary committee that among others duties was to recommend to both houses reforms to improve the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to ensure the August 8 General Election is administered in a transparent manner.

He says one of the key debates they had during their sittings at Windsor Golf and Resort in Nairobi was whether the commission should spend public money or whether it should conduct party primaries and the General Election.

“We reached a consensus that if a political party requests IEBC to conduct nominations, then it should do it using public funds at the request of any political party," Senator Murungi said.

“We did it because we had agreed among us that political parties did not have either financial resources or technical and human capacity to conduct these nominations, a position that was supported by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga."

SOLUTION
The country, he said, should move to implement Article 88 of the Constitution that requires the electoral commission to not only make rules, but also to conduct political party nominations.

“I can only hope that the next Parliament will address those concerns so that we do not have these chaotic nominations that are a threat to democratic consolidation in the country," Senator Murungi added.

He added that drafters of the Constitution had it in mind that party nominations should also be free and fair.

However, Mr Murungi was quick to commend Jubilee Party and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), arguing that given the “huge logistical and financial challenges", they had done their best “in very difficult" circumstances to pick their candidates for the August General Election.

“We believe where anomalies were found they were and would be addressed so that justice and democracy can be seen."

Article 88 (4) of the Constitution mandates the electoral commission to conduct or supervise referenda and elections to any elective body or office established by the Constitution, and any other elections as prescribed by an Act of Parliament.

In particular, the commission is expected to undertake continuous registration of citizens as voters; regular revision of the voters’ roll; delimitation of constituencies and wards, and regulate the process by which parties nominate candidates for elections.