Interference with Jubilee secretariat led to messed up primaries

The chaos and confusion that marked the Jubilee Party nominations across the country on Friday was the culmination of turf wars at the secretariat and warning signs that were ignored for months, the Sunday Nation has learnt.   

This came as Deputy President William Ruto held crisis talks — one of a series since Friday — at the party headquarters in Pangani for most of the afternoon after he joined President Uhuru Kenyatta at a media briefing at State House in the morning.

The repeat nominations will now be held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

POOR PREPARATIONS

President Kenyatta had a day before the nominations promised that the process would be free and fair but when he addressed the media on Saturday at State House, he admitted the party was “underprepared” and apologised to supporters.

“It is not that we were unprepared, we were underprepared. We were underprepared for the sheer scale of turnout that was witnessed and, therefore, we did not have adequate material and that was why we took two key decisions,” he said.

He said that the high voter turnout and the preparations the party had projected were not in tandem.

“We were doing a primary where ordinarily, and that has been the history, turnout has usually been between 25 and 30 per cent.

Yesterday (Friday) in some places there was up to 70 per cent, 80 per cent turnout and that is why I am saying that is like a General Election,” he said.

FEW BALLOT PAPERS
He promised that the fresh primaries will be better organised with the secretariat and the National Elections Board still leading the preparations.

However, a common complaint in most polling stations on Friday was that the ballot papers supplied were in some places less than one-third of the registered voters. 

Friday was an anti-climax after weeks in which party officials portrayed their nominations as a well-oiled machine.

However, on Wednesday there were indications that things were not as smooth as suggested after the party split the primaries to run for two days — Friday and Tuesday.

Later, it also indicated that the Nairobi nominations would be held on Monday (tomorrow).

The initial plan was to hold the entire elections in one day.

By D-Day, there were delays and confusion in Jubilee strongholds and even assurances from Secretary-General Raphael Tuju that all was well did not help matters.

AVAILABLE RESOURCES

In the end, the party initially cancelled nominations in a few areas before the entire process was called off.

Multiple interviews with party insiders have given indications of why such a big party, with at least Sh700 million collected from aspirants and complete with State resources that come with incumbency, could fail so dismally after months of preparations.

For selling at least 7.5 million smart cards for Sh20 each, the party collected Sh150 million.

A confused command structure — where influential figures without an official role issued instructions to the secretariat, the ill-advised idea to use smart cards, initial insistence that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission would conduct the nominations without a fallback plan, indecision on the register to use, power struggles at the secretariat and the fight for lucrative tenders were key reasons pointed out by our sources for the shambolic nominations.

SACKED OFFICIALS
But the turning point was the abrupt sacking of seven secretariat officials early this month, accused of conspiracy to sell nomination certificates to aspirants. 

Four of those kicked out were in the information technology department while three were supervisors.

“The team was sacked because they asked tough questions on the preparations of the nominations. There was an attempt to install ‘yes men’ at the secretariat and when they posed hard questions, they were sacked,” a source said.

Mr Tuju declined to comment on the matter, saying he did not deal with those affected.

“I deal with the executive director and her deputy only and my personal assistant. I don’t go to those levels. It would be too much to know all staff at the party headquarters,” he said.

Sources indicated that when the seven left, the new team struggled to rework details that had been set up ahead of the nominations.
“The team that left had strongly argued for the use of 2017 IEBC register and, at worst, the register for 2016 when IEBC conducted the first mass voter registration should have been used,” a source said.

MISSING NAMES
Instead, when the nominations came on Friday, there was total confusion as different registers were being used.

In some polling stations, the 2013 register was to be used and in other circumstances there was only the party register — potentially locking out more than two million voters.

Some aspirants were also affected by the development after they found their names missing from the register.

However, yesterday, elections board chairman Andrew Musangi told a media briefing that no party had access to the IEBC register.

Mr Tuju said the original plan was to use the party register and use the IEBC register to verify.

“If one had an ID card and had registered with the party, ours was to allow them to vote. The electoral commission register was to check whether they were in the right ward.

"The party register was the primary one, regardless of whether one had registered online or in person,” he said.

BIGGEST FLAW
The printing of ballot papers and distribution was the fulcrum of the nominations and this is where the party failed miserably.

According to original projections, using the 2017 register, the party was to print up to 80 per cent of ballot papers in areas where internal projections showed there would be competitive primaries resulting in higher turnout.

“There was a budget of Sh300m for printing of the ballot papers, so it is not clear why there was a shortage,” a source said.

Mr Tuju admitted the biggest flaw was in the ballot papers.

“Preliminary forensic audit shows that there was no ballot paper that was lost. We had ordered a printing of 50 per cent of registered ballots only for us to discover in some areas they were far too less.

"We did not open the ballots in Nairobi and they were taken directly to the constituencies and that’s where everything collapsed,” he said.

He admitted it was possible whoever printed the papers could have printed less ballots to maximise on profits.

The logistics budget had been put at about Sh100 million, the Sunday Nation learned, and this included transporting ballot materials from Nairobi to county party headquarters and subsequently to the polling stations.