Political parties are a special form of social organisation because unlike ordinary federations, social clubs and associations they influence the process of organising how we live together in society.
In so doing, ideal political parties strive to participate in the formation of political opinion and aspire to participate in representing the people in Parliament by taking part in elections. Hence, a party’s political contribution as well as its political influence is closely tied to elections. The will of the electorate is of significant importance to the parties.
For a strong democracy, the will of the electorate must be upheld both at intra- and inter-party levels. In our context, political parties have performed dismally in intra-party democracy, with dire negative effects on inter-party democracy during general elections.
All the big parties are yet to hold party elections and the few who have attempted to conduct polls have seen them end chaos and the so-called party owners have resorted to handpicking.
Parties have deliberately ensured their internal structures and operations are anything but democratic. Intra-party democracy activities, such as internal elections, are meant to include party members in decision-making and deliberation within the party structure, nurture citizens’ competencies, produce more capable representatives which in turn ensures the party produces better policies and political programmes. However, Kenya’s political elite seem more concerned that internal democracy could dilute the power of their party’s inner circle.
To enhance parties’ internal democracy, Kenya like a number of countries, has adopted positive action strategies in her legislation in the form of statutory quotas. The most common is that which defines the minimum percentage of women candidates or representatives a party needs to put forth for leadership and/or candidature for nomination.
The statutory quotas alone, as evidenced since their enactment, will not guarantee improved internal democratic behaviour. It is the parties' own guidelines and rules that will set the tone of how important internal democracy should be, and finally have a positive effect on our general elections.
Executive director of Centre for Multiparty Democracy spoke to the Star