The season when party-preneurs make a killing is finally with us

Acting Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung'u speaks at Crown Plaza Hotel on January 29, 2014. This is the high season to cash in, when politicians are running helter-skelter seeking party tickets. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Elders are in the business of “endorsing” candidates, usually for a financial consideration.
  • A revised election law passed last year required that a candidate could not defect to another party close to the General Election.
  • The briefcase boys have always prospered on the shameless party hopping that habitually follows the chaotic mainstream party primaries.

There are two ways you are guaranteed to make a lot of easy money in Kenya. One, start a church. Or register a political party. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A briefcase outfit will do.

This is the high season to cash in, when politicians are running helter-skelter seeking party tickets. Expect the flood to increase when Big Party primaries are done.

These traditionally come with dreadful internal implosions akin to what in astronomy are called supernova. The implosions have already started.

The beauty of briefcase parties is their neat convenience. They don’t hold rallies or conduct campaigns. What for? Their overheads and running expenses are next to zero.

The thing you notice when they emerge from hibernation are little adverts tucked somewhere inside the newspaper targeting candidates for elective posts. They operate on first-come-first-served basis, no questions asked. You just pay the required fee and you get your nomination ticket.

NOMINATION CERTIFICATE

With the nomination certificate safely in hand, the rest is up to you. There is no tedious vetting. You won’t be asked embarrassing questions about a fraud case you were once embroiled in or how you acquired a college degree with a D- KCSE grade.

You will have time to confront those hurdles later when you deal with the IEBC and EACC. Once you pass these, you are good to go.

A major legal hassle had come along that threatened to ruin the gravy train of the briefcase party-preneurs.

A revised election law passed last year required that a candidate could not defect to another party close to the General Election. In February, a High Court judge suspended this provision.

The briefcase boys have always prospered on the shameless party hopping that habitually follows the chaotic mainstream party primaries. The court decision ensured their bread and butter will not be touched.

RUN AS INDEPENDENTS

There still remains another inconvenience for the briefcase party-preneurs. The Constitution allows contestants to run as independents. This gives room for those who fall out with the mainstream parties but don’t want to hook up with the briefcase operators.

I have met my share of briefcase party operatives in my time. Some are the typical River Road-style brokers who hold no political or ideological positions on anything.

They just want to see the cash. Others are dreamy eccentrics pushing single-issue agendas, such as organic farming. I recall one fellow who launched an obscure party in 1992 that was dedicated to promoting female circumcision. I don’t know if it still exists.  

Indeed, tightened electoral regulations for aspirants and parties are not looked on kindly by the briefcase parties. It’s surprising activist Okiya Omtata has never gone to court to challenge the operations of briefcase parties. Do they make regular statutory filings to the Registrar of Political Parties? Are their accounts audited? What is the legal status of their officials?

ELDERS IN BUSINESS

I almost forgot a third category that makes a killing at election time. They call themselves elders. They are in the business of “endorsing” candidates, usually for a financial consideration. And they are active among many communities. However, they are not always a clearly defined group. You find many splinter groups from the same community rooting for different candidates.

In the North-Eastern counties, the clans have perfected something curiously called “negotiated democracy”.

In practice, clan leaders pick the candidates, and then issue a fait accompli to the sitting MPs not to defend their seats.

In Mandera County, the elders have demanded all the elected incumbents to withdraw from the coming races. Somebody as urbane as Senator Billow Kerrow was reported to have given in without complaint. But Governor Ali Roba rejected the demand as undemocratic.

* * *

I am aware a fair number of journalists are running for various seats in the coming election. There are two in particular who have been associated with the Nation and who have thrown themselves in the ring in Kitui County.

There is former editor Enoch Wambua (after leaving this newspaper, he joined The Standard), who seeks the seat of senator.

Then there is my good friend, the charming Mwende Mwinzi, previously a fellow columnist on these pages and later on a communications consultant based in New York.

Her sights are on the Mwingi West parliamentary seat. Kitui County is known to produce strong women leaders like Charity Ngilu and Nyiva Mwendwa who become national figures.