Disregard six-piece voting, governor hopeful tells residents

Former Devolution PS has urged Murang’a residents to vote for leaders who will be answerable to them regardless of their political outfits.

Irungu Nyakera, who is vying for the governor seat on the Farmers Party, said the last election was proof enough that Kenyans should not vote for leaders based on their parties.

In the run-up to 2017 general election, he said, high-ranking political leaders went to the villages asking Kenyans to vote for certain leaders.

The result, he said, was that leaders who ended up in the National Assembly and the Senate were puppets who did only as they were told.

“This is why we are calling for the strengthening of more parties to participate in the democratic space,” he said.

In the last few months, he said, UDA — which is a member party of the Kenya Kwanza Alliance — was sidelining other parties within the coalition.

The outfit, he said, even went as far as publicly calling on its supporters to go for six-piece voting rather than within the coalition.

The calls have, in turn, resulted in sibling rivalry among affiliate parties, with some party leaders such as Tujibebe’s William Kabogo saying they would quit the coalition.

Kabogo, who is vying for Kiambu governor, had co-authored a letter with Chama Cha Kazi party leader Moses Kuria in which they called on the coalition’s principals to organise a meeting to resolve the issues.

The former Kiambu county chief said smaller parties are not included during the planning of campaigns, which he said are used to popularise UDA.

Nyakera, however, said the 11 parties within the coalition signed an agreement that was to ensure they were all treated equally.

“We felt shortchanged as we had gone in there to build the coalition and we all had one presidential candidate, [who is] Deputy President William Ruto,” he said. 

“The last few weeks have seen a lot of infighting but we have since started engaging to see how they can be resolved as we work towards a Ruto presidency and a Kenya Kwanza government.” 

Speaking while conducting his campaigns on Monday, Nyakera urged Murang’a residents to disregard the issue of six-piece voting regardless of their political affiliation.

The former PS, however, said that things have changed since there is a lot of feedback from people opposed to electing people based on their parties.

He added that voters are keen on leaders who have good manifestos and high integrity, especially with several counties falling short of their expectations.

Kenyans, he said, are now looking for a new crop of leaders who will efficiently utilise their resources.

Nyakera said it is important that individual candidates are allowed to fight for their own space by convincing Kenyans on their development agenda.

He also expressed confidence that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is well prepared to conduct the election.

“I, however, have my fears. I would want to know how many agents I will be allowed, how ballots are being stored and that polling centre results will be final,” he said. 

(edited by Amol Awuor)