Kenyan aspirants campaign for party ticket to state house

By Kenneth Oduor

NAIROBI, Kenya- With less than a month to go to party nominations to decide the party’s flag bearer, ODM-Kenya’s presidential hopefuls are strutting the length and breadth of the country in an attempt to woo voters to their respective sides.
The party has settled on June 30th as the deadline to nominate the presidential candidate to face the incumbent president Mwai Kibaki in the coming December polls.

And to set the pace for the nomination process, the party has constituted an election board to oversee the process.
The party has further settled on two ways to nominate the flag bearer. It will either use consensus method where the contenders will settle on one of them to carry the party flag or the delegates system where party delegates will be called upon to go to the ballot and elect the presidential nominee.
According to the party’s nomination rules and deliberations, nothing is negotiated until everything is negotiated.

The party’s Secretary General Professor Anyang Nyongo has said consensus would be preferred but should it fail then they would be forced to go to the ballot.
“A consensus has to be a consensus. If that does not happen then it is the ballot,” said the Secretary General.

With all the party hopefuls having returned their nomination papers to the party secretariat except Uhuru Kenyatta who is grappling with a court case over the leadership of his party Kanu, the battle lines are already drawn for the contenders.
The party is on a final and critical point of its journey to the corridors of power. It could either see it split down the middle should it misstep or see its leaders close ranks in their bid to hold it together.

The party had earlier survived an onslaught on its unity by a group who felt that the party secretariat is filled with people sympathetic to one of the leading contenders for the party ticket, Raila Odinga.
The party also survived earlier an internal coup after attempts to overthrow the party leadership failed.

Prof. Nyongo defending the party secretariat said, “The secretariat has been accused of tribalism yet no evidence has been adduced. I feel insulted since my record as a democrat and defender of human rights have stood the test of time,” said Nyongo.
But all said and done, it is a do or die battle for the aspirants