The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) today launched a Human Rights Account of the Political Party Primaries dubbed ‘The Fallacious Vote’ to give highlights of the political primaries. Lucas Kimathi, a KNCHR official said that 17 cases of violence of a serious nature were meted out on aspirants, their supporters and voters during the primaries, ranging from attempted rape, alleged abductions, use of firearms as well as intimidation. He added that when it comes bribery cases, Jubilee party emerged top with 59%, followed by ODM with 25% and FORD Kenya with 8%. Bungoma County recorded 23% of the violence cases during the primaries, Nairobi had 11%, while Mombasa and Migori Counties were lagging with 6%. Bungoma County also ranked high when it comes to bribery cases, with 25%, followed by Nairobi at 17%.
When it comes to violence cases per parties, Orange Democratic Party (ODM) leads the way with 53% of the cases, followed by Jubilee at 35%, and both ANC and Ford Kenya recorded 6% of the violence cases. The Commission recruited, trained and deployed 84 monitors who monitored the primaries in over 33 counties. The monitors ensured that they gave real-time information on its findings. 224 polling stations were involved during the monitoring process.
The commission identified 10 parameters of assessment which include bribery, violence, lack of sufficient voting materials, misuse of public resources, late opening and early closing of centres, provision of security, intimidation and violence against the marginalized, lack of sufficient voting materials and absence of political party membership list and missing names.
KNCHR, together with other human rights actors, have moved to the Supreme Court to seek Advisory Opinion on the standards and guidelines that should apply to persons seeking elective posts with regards to leadership and integrity. Some of the recommendations given by the commission include improving intelligence gathering by the security agencies to identify potential actionable threats to a free and fair election, encouraging responsible and unbiased media reporting when covering elections.
“Elections need to be free and fair and action should be taken against parties and candidates who did not adhere to the primary process”, said KNCHR Chairperson Ms Kagwiria Mbogori. She also encouraged Kenyans to exercise their democratic right by coming out in large numbers to vote in the August 8th general election.