Tuesday, January 8, 2013

True freedom of choice is Jubilee’s way of doing business


By Jasper Mbiuki
The National Alliance (TNA) and the Jubilee Coalition as a whole have captured the hearts and minds of Kenyans. Both traditional and new Media are abuzz with talk about the Party and the Coalition.
TNA’s media team has been inundated with queries from both media and prospective candidates asking when the Party will be holding its much anticipated nominations exercise.
This buzz is hardly surprising. Free and fair party nominations are an essential ingredient for democratic and successful polls. For far too long Kenyan elections have been characterized by cloak-and-dagger intrigues and malpractices that begin at the party nominations stage.
In the past, the outcome of electoral races was pre-determined through locking out of candidates, who while popular at the grassroots were not favoured by party mandarins. True freedom of choice was, therefore, curtailed with the electorate being forced to choose from a shallow pool of candidates who were not representative of the goals and aspirations of wananchi.
TNA is committed to making a decisive break from this turgid past and introducing a new high standard for party democracy in Kenya. Following on from the development of our Party Nominations and Electoral Rules through an open process characterised by public participation, consultation and consensus; TNA wishes to announce that the Party will conduct its Party Nominations on January 17, 2013.
Our polls will be the benchmark against which all future party nominations in Kenya will gauged due to their high standards of transparency, integrity and democracy.  We will offer opportunity to, and encourage, facilitate participation of youth, women, marginalised communities and persons with disabilities in the nominations.
Kenyan politics can no longer be the preserve of a privileged elite. TNA wishes to lead the way in opening up party politics and the electoral process to those who have for far too long been consigned to the periphery of public life in Kenya.
TNA will not tolerate any electoral fraud, violence, voter intimidation or corruption. There are no sacred cows in our Party. Any person who commits, aids or abets any form of electoral malpractice will not only be summarily expelled from the Party but also reported to the relevant authorities forthwith.
Our nominations will be conducted under the auspices of the IEBC and supervised by the Media and independent observers. Results of the nominations will be verified by a leading audit firm to ensure transparency and accountability.
As part of our commitment to transparency we encourage all Kenyans to report any concerns or incidents during the nominations to not only TNA officials but also to the media. We will extensively employ social media networks and TV coverage in order to keep Kenyans abreast with developments as the nominations unfold.
TNA fully expects and will encourage and facilitate citizen journalism and commentary on online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Before the nominations date we will unveil a dedicated Facebook page as well as a Twitter handle through which Kenyans, at home and abroad, can follow, comment and interrogate our nominations.
These measures are designed to ensure TNA nominations are the most open and transparent party poll in Kenyan history. We have made conscious effort in all our endeavours to be the trend-setting and innovative party in Kenya.
We urge Kenyans to use the nominations period as a benchmark against which political parties and Coalitions should be judged. Those that employ opaque nomination rules and conduct their internal polls under a cloak of mystery, direct nominations and pre-destined outcomes should be shunned.
Nascent democracies like Kenya develop and mature in a series of small but seminal steps.  The promulgation of a new Constitution was the first stride in Kenya’s journey from a past typified by dictatorship and tribal politics to a future of democracy, cohesion and true public participation in governance.
The next step is for us to have free, fair and truly democratic party nominations which will be the basis for a successful and incident-free general election.
TNA calls on all political parties to follow our lead and conduct their internal polls in an open, free and fair manner. We also encourage the Media to cover the nominations in a fair and balanced manner. Kenyans would benefit greatly from having those partyies that conduct undemocratic polls highlighted by Media.
The manner in which a party or coalition conducts nominations is the single biggest indicator of how it will govern our country.
The writer is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.


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