The fate of aspirants whose names were submitted by more than one political party as nominees is now in limbo after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) stated that they would be locked out of the August elections.
According to the IEBC Commissioner Roselyne Akombe, at least 89 people including a sitting MP, were listed by more than one party as nominees ahead of the August 8 polls.
Ms Akombe stated that the commission had reached out to the aspirants to ascertain the facts and rectify the anomaly.
“We are reaching out to political parties to clarify such cases. By law, no one should belong to more than one political party.
“However, as the names are uploaded to our system we do not wish to penalise any aspirant until we ascertain the facts,” said Akombe.
Top of the list was Kabuchai MP James Lusweti Mukwe who has been listed as a nominee for Ford Kenya and the Federal Party of Kenya for the same seat.
Pundits, however, claim that though some of the anomalies might have been honest mistakes by parties, the possibility of shrewd politicians trying to beat the system could not be ruled out.
Some reportedly used acronyms in other parties, reverted to full names in others or interchanged the names all together in a bid to gain the all-important nomination certificate during the party primaries.
Under the Political Parties Act, it is illegal for anyone to belong to more than one party.
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