Who is more ‘damu’ than the other?

Shameful scenes confronted us the other day. It was at a meeting called by officials in Kiambu County to discuss and agree on how the January 2013 TNA nominations for the county would be conducted.

The big guns had in all likelihood transported their supporters "en masse" to the venue in the hope of showing their popularity and perhaps to sway some of the ‘undecided’ to their side. Ugly and chaotic scenes of fisticuffs, hurling abuse and chair throwing ruled the day before some semblance of order prevailed and the nominations to the county committees were finalized. But, if this is the democracy some people talk about then I want nothing to do with it because if two people were nominated to the county committee after being read from a list and with the process having to be repeated in some instances as differing lists were forwarded, then this is not democracy!!

The forthcoming elections are going to be a high stakes game. With so many elective positions up for grabs and with so little time for nominations left, and with no ‘second’ chance once you fail at the initial nomination it will be a truly chaotic situation as all the contenders battle for the nomination ticket of the most popular party in their areas in a no holds barred, winner take all contest. It will make the actual elections in March 2013 look like a stroll in the park because the nomination process will be the final decider on who gets to be on the ballot box and on which party ticket!!

The Kiambu fiasco is going to be replayed across the country in one form or another as the current crop of MP’s, long forgotten former MP’s smelling reincarnation in the expanded democratic space, professionals looking for the excitement of competitive politics  to make a change and all looking to get the all-important party nomination for one of the various seats.

Those from the various counties in Central Province will fight tooth and nail for a TNA nomination, those in Luo Nyanza for an ODM nomination, those in Ukambani for a WIPER nomination, those in Western Kenya are still deciding, those in the Coast are still at ease waiting for direction etc, etc. There will be no negotiation and no consensus just a group of self-important people fighting for a nomination that in their own warped belief is divinely theirs by right and by virtue of the loudest praises to their party leaders and the strongest appeals to their tribal cohorts in support of their favorite candidate.

If this thing called democracy was alive and kicking in Kenya, then why the acrimony among those who claim to practice the same ideals as their leaders? Why the name calling, chair throwing and general bad manners if (as claimed) they will respect the nomination process and support the one who has won for the better good of the party? Or is it just a fallacy that your party leaders are democrats and have high ideals yet the truth of the matter is that they are mere rabble rousers content with a cabal of foul mouthed individuals only looking out for their personal interests?

I see democracy in Kenya taking a lethal body blow immediately after the nomination process and our courts inundated with petition after petition from sour losers unbelieving that even after emptying their bank accounts in a bid to woe the electorate to support them, they have failed to make the ‘cut’!

There will be a lot of very unhappy people out there once the nomination process is concluded and with nowhere else to go they will be licking their wounds and crying just how unfair the process was well after the actual election in March 2013.

And before I forget, and if you have not yet done so, make sure you register as a voter before the deadline expires on 18th December 2012!!