EACC and police shouldn’t allow parties to get away with fraud

The recent political party nominations were outstanding for the huge number of disputes filed before the tribunals and the courts.

Some cases remain unsolved and will probably drag on through the courts for quite some time.

There are also those that the tribunals appeared to rush to dispose of on simple technicalities to beat tight deadlines.

Many of the aggrieved aspirants who felt they did not get justice before the tribunals have voted with their feet to contest the August elections as independent candidates.

Unlike in the past elections, a good number of the independents fancy their chances this time around against their rivals sponsored by the major parties, whose flawed nominations produced a lot of disgruntled supporters out there.

TRADITIONAL STRONGHOLDS

Indeed, there can’t be a better time to run as an independent even in some of the traditional strongholds of the big parties.

Of course, voters will finally settle the debate at the ballot on August 8.

It would be a big win for democracy if they chose to overlook party loyalty and elected deserving independents, who were victims of the chaos, the violence and the open rigging at the party primaries.

Robotic voters are the reason the big political parties rig their nominations and get away with it.

But they are also helped in no small measure by the fact that Kenya’s law enforcement, investigative and prosecution agencies look the other way when it comes to crimes committed by political parties.

SELL NOMINATION CERTIFICATES

Some of the confessions and allegations coming out of public exchanges between persons in the inner circle of certain political parties point to bribery, fraud and kidnap –  cases that the police and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission would ordinarily take interest in.

When, for instance, a gang, disguising itself as a political party, opens a kiosk in Nairobi to sell nomination certificates, including fake ones, to the highest bidder, that cannot be treated as a petty elections offender.

When a senior member of a political gang handpicks the candidates for the various seats in a county from his bedroom, his or her right common name is a fraudster.

BOGUS EMPLOYMENT BUREAU

If a non-politician started or ran a similar enterprise, it would be called a bogus employment bureau or even pyramid scheme.

Some party officials have in the past argued that political parties are like private clubs that should be left to choose whomever they want as their candidate, citing the practice in Britain. It is an idea they may want to pursue seriously in future, given their poor record organising party primaries.

But it won’t address the major public concern – the fraud schemes by political parties cheating hundreds of men and women out of their life savings, assets and loans every election year and pushing families into destitution.

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