By Lee Kinyanjui
Dear aspirants,
The journey to politics is often full of intrigues and drama. It is such a complicated maze that we justify the use of the term mheshimiwa.
One critical milestone is the party nominations. In many parts of the country, a party ticket is as good as victory. For this reason, it is a near life and death matter.
On nomination day, many of the promises of fairness and transparency fail the test. It should not surprise you that your opponent’s proxy will be transporting the ballot papers to the polling stations or the returning officer is compromised.
Violence is a critical component of the day’s infrastructure. Due to low investment in the nomination process, logistics and security is often left to vigilantes and other forms of crude militia. The net effect is that the winners are often not the people’s candidates, but those with near criminal software. It is then that you realize why your opponent did not invest in a manifesto but in a particular law enforcement boss.
We have made the electoral process so complicated that good leaders have shied away.
As a result, the winners are often those who can manage the violence in their favour.
For new aspirants, please note that most of those who have assured you of a free and fair nomination will have their phones off on that day. The public will care less about the process and will consider you the loser, explaining yourself will only portray you as a disgruntled loser.
The country will continue to lose great leaders courtesy of flawed processes. Buyer bewares.
Lee Kinyanjui is the Governor for Nakuru County and also the Ubuntu Peoples Forum (UPF) Party Leader
Dennis Dibondo