Democracy is a form of government in which citizens have the power to decide the laws under which they will live.
These decisions are made through a vote of the people in a direct democracy or through elected officials who vote on behalf of their constituents in a representative democracy.
Either way, the opinions of voters should usually be taken into consideration and the elected leaders get to be accountable to the people.
Proper negotiation is paramount as the decisions arrived at should be acceptable to all the people.
A democratic country is a country that cares about the dignity of its people, quality decisions are made, the government is run by the people and for the people, and above all, a country’s people are given an opportunity or rather a chance to mend their ways.
Now that is the beauty of democracy, and a democratic country.
Most parties are done with their party nominations and how democracy is not observed still bothers me. Why can’t they just allow us to actively take part in the nominations?
All in all, what surprises us the most is how short-handed we’ve been proven to be when it came down to us prioritising.
Our right to push our preferred candidates has been trampled upon viciously, we’ve been presided for.
Party preliminaries have been in absolute shambles.
Nobody is coming clean to explain what is going on, all we’ve heard are propagated news of how things are going to be improved, of how it’s not what it looks like, of how this situation can be easily resolved.
What are we being taken for? Why is our common sense overlooked by political bigwigs, our dream of having the leaders we need most is dwindling and is going to vanish into thin air.
This trend of shoving leaders down our throats is becoming a norm and they are easily assuming we will sooner or later agree with the leaders we are coerced with.
The election processes are being interfered with in broad daylight and explanations given barely make sense.
Pre-marked ballot papers are strewn all over. It’s come to a point they aren’t even closely guarded anymore, it shows how we’ve fallen short of standards.
It’s almost believed the electorate has no voice beyond the mark made on the ballot paper, that’s where the power ends, beyond that, decisions have been made for who deserves the ticket.
Enough is enough. Instead of crying of foul play in the party primaries, the best move is to front our preferred candidate and ask them to vie as an independent and we unanimously vote for them.
It is a high time these political kingpins knew and comprehended that without us they have nothing to brag about.
Students at St Paul's and Mt Kenya Universities
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
