2002 Elections

Nyachae is Right, After All

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Published on Thursday, 19 July 2007 01:51

I am no more of a sympathiser with the Opposition's quest for unity than many angry Kenyans impoverished by Kanu's plunder of our national resources and image. But when it comes to settling the score, I don't believe in setting the house ablaze together with such treasures as principle, conscience and democracy. These things, as you may have known by now, are very dear to some people like Mr Simeon Nyachae.

At the ripe age of 70, Mr Nyachae does not have two chances of becoming president of Kenya. It is now or never. So I quite understand why he is piqued by the underhand method used by his colleagues to pick Mr Mwai Kibaki as the sole opposition presidential candidate.

Mr Nyachae has invested heavily in the presidential race and it is a crude joke for someone to wake up one day and decide that he should not run. Surely, there has to be what lawyers call due process. The son of a former chief and an administrator himself, Mr Nyachae knows when an administrative decision stinks. And this one surely does. You need to look at what procedure was used to understand that Mr Nyachae has his points all right. The problem is that it is not politically-correct now to appear to stand in the way of the much sought unity.

The recipe for Nyachae is not to bully him out, or persuade him to step down with whatever incentives. The guy wants a dish called democracy and he is entitled to it. Can someone please serve it to him hot and bristling?

Mr Nyachae's gripe is simple. He had proposed an electoral college of 300 representatives drawn from Kibaki's National Alliance Party (NAK), his Kenya People Coalition (KPC) and James Orengo's forsaken Social Democratic Party (SDP) to elect the super alliance presidential candidate. But his proposal was outrightly rejected for a quick fix back room declaration of support for Mwai Kibaki.

Since the National Rainbow Alliance Coalition has decided to carry out primary nominations for all parliamentary and civic candidates, and if it can achieve that feat, what is so hard about carrying out transparent nominations for the presidential candidate as well? If Mr Kibaki is the sure and preferred front-runner and he has the support of most NARC members, what is the big deal? If Nyachae's proposal is not acceptable, then Narc should try out others. Narc should carry out nomination in 210 constituencies. The nominees for parliamentary seats can then constitute themselves into an electoral college and elect the Narc presidential candidate. The 211th nomination may turn out to be all the Opposition needs to be united!

Nyachae has his point and he should not be condemned. All he needs is to be given a fair chance to lose. Otherwise democracy will suffer irredeemably if such compromises become the norm.

Mr Nyachae may be a obstinate lone-ranger but if he is not accommodated, the victory that the Opposition is yearning for might be elusive. From my political mapping, Ford People is the party to beat in Coast province and Kisii diaspora, Narc in Western, Nyanza, Central and Eastern; Kanu in Rift Valley and North Eastern. Nairobi and Central and parts of the Rift Valley will provide the swing vote. But the eventual winner will be determined by such factors as the process of nominations and alliance-building, which should not be ignored.