Two Jubilee Legislators Plead With CORD Against Inciting Kenyans Into Violence.

Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki and Kandara MP Alice Muthoni Wahome have pleaded with the opposition CORD against causing anxiety and inciting their supporters into violence by using Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) electoral process as a scapegoat the same way they did in 2007 and in a few areas of the country in last year’s polls.

They noted that, as the government in power, they had given in to the demands by the opposition to disband IEBC even though none of them had been found culpable of any offence.

“As Jubilee, we caved in to their demands to disband the IEBC but they are now shifting the goalposts and bringing in new hurdles. They are now talking about the BVR machines. I do not know who told them that these gadgets would not work. In any case that these machines fail to work, there is a provision in the law that allows for a manual system to be used,” said Kindiki.

He pointed out that there existed no country in the world that had an electoral system that was 100% electronic, not even Britain and America who have been in this game for more than 300 years. He said that where machines failed, the electoral body must have a fallback system for counting the votes cast and transmitting them to the tallying centres.

He said that the main reason the opposition was behaving so was the fact that they knew that Jubilee will give them a ‘beating of a lifetime’ come August 2017. He added that Jubilee was very sure of a 70% vote tally come the next General Elections.

Responding to a question related to Nairobi politics, Kindiki said that the government would not interfere with the politics of the capital city but would leave the decision to pick their candidates to the people of Nairobi themselves.

However, he pointed out that every Kenyan had a constitutional right to vie for any seat in any part of this country.

Kindiki called on all Kenyans to join Jubilee Party as it was the party poised to form the next government. He said that this time, the ruling party could not afford divisions as it was one of the reasons they lost several seats in the last General Elections. He assured those in fear of being rigged out of nominations that the party had no preferred candidate as it would let the wananchi decide who their preferred candidates would be.

He added that all the 14 Jubilee affiliate parties will officially dissolve into Jubilee Party at Safaricom Stadium, Kasarani between the 8^th and 10^th September 2016.

“Next year all these parties will run for elections under one umbrella party, The Jubilee Party. The coming together of Jubilee affiliate parties is an effort by President Uhuru Kenyatta to bring together all the communities of this country. He has promised a free and fair nominations by employing the services of the IEBC.

He dispelled the rumour circulating round that Jubilee Party would hold their nominations just 14 days to the IEBC deadline in order to discourage their members from party hopping.

“The Select Committee of Parliament has introduced amendments to the Elections Act and another bill called The Elections Offences Bill which consolidates all offences related to elections which (previously) had been scattered in various legislations before. The proposed amendments to these Acts require all parties to finish their nominations within 45 days. They must conduct their elections between 90 and 45 days and submit their names to IEBC,” he explained.

IEBC, he added, would publish those names with the next 30 days, a period which no one is allowed to shift parties.

Hon. Alice concurred with his counterpart on the IEBC issue adding that the country could not be tied to only one system of voting. However, she vehemently opposed a situation in which the electoral process allowed every polling station to be given the mandate to declare results as this was tantamount to abuse.

“We cannot allow all polling stations to be the final source of results declaration because this will limit accountability among the officials of IEBC. This is just opening the system to so many hands, thus a great possibility of manipulation of results which cannot be allowed,” said the Kandara Legislator.

She supported the idea of the IEBC to conduct Jubilee Party Primaries as it was an independent body that was mandated by our constitution to conduct, supervise and regulate a proper election in any institution in Kenya.

The two were speaking in Kenyoho Village in Kandara Constituency during the burial of Rebecca Wanjiru Mwaura (84), a sister to former PS Energy Mr. Patrick Wanyoike and the first born to the family of the first Kandara MP Taddeo Mwaura.

The two condoled the family of the deceased who they described as great contributor of development activities in Kandara Constituency and the African Independent Church of Africa (AIPCA).

Taddeo is among the people who formed the AIPCA and was a renowned freedom fighter along with the likes of The Late Bildad Kaggia.