Shots fired, panic as ODM poll disrupted
A chaotic scene at the venue of ODM nominations for the senatorial by-election in Homa Bay on December 15, 2014. Gunshots rent the air at Olare Market on December 28th in Homa Bay County after a hostile crowd charged at an ODM team that had set out on an introductory of Mosea Otieno Kajwang. PHOTO | TOM OTIENO |
What you need to know:
- Youths, quite likely at the behest of one of the losing candidates, resorted to violence, taking the decision away from the voters and handing it to party headquarters.
- ODM has four days to nominate a candidate. It is highly unlikely that alternative nominations can be arranged on such short notice.
- IEBC is highly unlikely to set the bad precedent of allowing parties to mismanage their nominations and ask for extensions. The IEBC had no such petition by the time we went to press.
The disruption of the Homa Bay senatorial nominations on Monday opens the way for Orange House to nominate a candidate for the county.
Delegates of the Orange Democratic Movement were picking a candidate to run in a by-election for the seat left vacant by the death of Mr Otieno Kajwang’. The race has attracted eight candidates.
However, three of the candidates — Mr Caroli Omondi, Mr Philip Okundi and Mr Fred Rabongo — were outright front-runners, creating a powerful incentive for the other candidates to disrupt the poll altogether.
In any case, there is a strange vacuum in the race because party leader Raila Odinga — who had shown interest in representing the county and withdrew after a local rebellion — cannot play the honest broker.
BAD PRECEDENT
The party headquarters itself has set a bad precedent: allowing the disruption of national elections to go unpunished and picking party officials by means other than elections.
Youths, quite likely at the behest of one of the losing candidates, resorted to violence, taking the decision away from the voters and handing it to party headquarters.
ODM has four days to nominate a candidate. It is highly unlikely that alternative nominations can be arranged on such short notice.
Even claims by director of elections Junet Mohammed that the party had petitioned the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to extend the December 19 nomination deadline by two weeks to allow the party to pick a candidate through direct election was more of damage control than a practical solution.
NO SUCH PETITION
The IEBC is highly unlikely to set the bad precedent of allowing parties to mismanage their nominations and ask for extensions. The IEBC had no such petition by the time we went to press.
“The only communication we have received is who are the bona fide signatories to the certificates,” IEBC chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan said by phone.
Yesterday, three youth leaders were arrested after the chaos, during which a bodyguard fired shots, sending delegates scampering for safety.
“We are disturbed at the turn of events and have written to IEBC petitioning them to extend the nomination deadline for two weeks so as to conduct the exercise through universal suffrage,” said Mr Mohammed, the Suna East MP.
The ODM top organ met and opted to turn the county’s 406 delegates into an electoral college for the February 2 by-election.
PREFERRED CANDIDATE
Signs that all was not well were clear last week when branch officials and the six aspirants for the party ticket complained about the delegates list, with some alleging that it had been “doctored” to suit a candidate preferred by the party headquarters.
Youths appeared to take a cue from the "Men in Black" who disrupted the ODM national elections at the Kasarani Stadium gymnasium on February 28 and the roughing up of party executive director Magerer Langat at Orange House in Nairobi on October 30.
In what is becoming routine for ODM, the youths stormed the Homa Bay County Assembly Hall, where the nominations were taking place, and destroyed all the voting materials as frightened delegates ran for their lives.
