‘Kidnapping’ democracy!
EDITOR—That Kenya has been maturing politically is no longer in doubt. So far, more than 300 political parties are in existence and are freely and fairly popularising themselves as they sell their ideas, visions and blue-prints to the citizenry. Things have not always been so rosy though.
EDITOR—That Kenya has been maturing politically is no longer in doubt. So far, more than 300 political parties are in existence and are freely and fairly popularising themselves as they sell their ideas, visions and blue-prints to the citizenry. Things have not always been so rosy though.
Behind us we have a very dark past that includes the 24 years in the wilderness when sycophancy, inefficiency, intimidation and rampant corruption were the order of he day.
The Moi government, unreliable as it was, was able to give kenyans a free and fair election. It also respected kenyans’ decision and ceremoniously relinquished power to the people’s choice in 2002. We ought to be building on that for a better kenya. However, the current situation is very grim.
Instead of furthering our democratic maturity, we now have massive buying of voters’ cards in Western, North-Eastern, Rift valley, Nyanza, Nairobi and now in Coast provinces! These are acts that even Moi could not engage in—they were just too dirty for him. These recent occurrences are very worrying and are tantamount to ‘kidnapping’ democracy.
That a single individual can be found to be in possession of more than 700 voters’ cards (at the coast) and another with 71 (in Nairobi) on a single day should not be taken lightly. This must be stopped!
Alan E Masakhali
alarrnies@yahoo.com
Behind us we have a very dark past that includes the 24 years in the wilderness when sycophancy, inefficiency, intimidation and rampant corruption were the order of he day.
The Moi government, unreliable as it was, was able to give kenyans a free and fair election. It also respected kenyans’ decision and ceremoniously relinquished power to the people’s choice in 2002. We ought to be building on that for a better kenya. However, the current situation is very grim.
Instead of furthering our democratic maturity, we now have massive buying of voters’ cards in Western, North-Eastern, Rift valley, Nyanza, Nairobi and now in Coast provinces! These are acts that even Moi could not engage in—they were just too dirty for him. These recent occurrences are very worrying and are tantamount to ‘kidnapping’ democracy.
That a single individual can be found to be in possession of more than 700 voters’ cards (at the coast) and another with 71 (in Nairobi) on a single day should not be taken lightly. This must be stopped!
Alan E Masakhali
alarrnies@yahoo.com