In Kenya, the reality is that nominations will only work if people are loyal to the parties they belong to.
During the last Democratic Party primaries in the United States, none of the people who ran against Joe Biden left after losing in the nominations.
Biden won the Democratic Party nomination, beating the likes of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg to take on President Donald Trump.
But none of those who lost to Biden left. This is because their allegiance, loyalty and political philosophies align with those of the party.
In Kenya, we don’t do not have people who are loyal 100 per cent to their party. We do not have members who will fight for their rights within the party when they feel short-changed instead of leaving.
There is no one who believes UDA, for example, is the only party that can make him win. This, therefore, means there is a lot of party hopping.
People, just by sensing they may lose nominations fairly or unfairly, cross over to other outfits where a ticket will almost certainly be guaranteed. Those who may be time barred to join another party are most likely to run as independent candidates.
Most politicians do not expect party primaries to be free and fair. A good number of them will say they won party primaries but were rigged out. These are some of the setbacks in our political arena.
On whether avoiding nominations and handing direct tickets would enhance democracy, I would say not necessarily.
Democracy only works where there is an established party system. In Kenya, we do not have an established party system.
We have seen political parties opting for negotiated democracy, consensus and opinion polling to decide who will be nominated.
As a result, there have been many reports of voters saying they will elect independent candidates, should their parties settle for direct tickets.
The issuance of direct tickets to avert adversities sometimes does not work.
Political analyst spoke to the Star
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