President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga have suffered a huge blow after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) gazetted a notice providing a window for nomination losers to jump ship.
In the notice, IEBC has left open a window for party nomination losers to run as independent candidates.
“Candidates intending to participate in the General Election as independent candidates shall not be members of any political party by 8th May 2017, being 3 months before the General Election,” the Gazette notice read in part.
According to the notice, aspirants will not be allowed to join a new party after losing in nominations of another party. The losers will, however, be allowed to run as independent candidates.
The notice further states that political parties will conduct their nominations between 13th to 26th of April which provides the aspirants with two weeks to change camp and run as independent candidates.
In September 2016, the president and the former prime minister whipped their Members of Parliament to pass the 2016 Election Laws and the Election Offences Bill barring politicians from changing parties after losing primaries.
MPs passed the law as whipped and did not include any amendments, a situation which analysts termed as politicians committing political suicide.
The two coalitions had proposed that the 2016 Election Laws and the Election Offences Bill be passed without amendments to avoid defections which have been observed in the past especially in stronghold areas where clinching the party ticket is as good as winning the election.
IEBC Chairperson Mr Wafula Chebukati, however, sent a warning message to all politicians planning to violate the law.
“If you want to run as independent, do not engage in the nomination of a political party. The law was made to stop that, and we will make sure it does,” Mr Chebukati stated.
The new notice, if well implemented will see losers in nominations vie as independent candidates posing a huge threat to candidates nominated in President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga’s parties especially in swing vote areas where there is stiff competition.
