MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

Controversial queue-voting planted the seeds of dissent

In Summary

  • Moi said Kanu was a transparent party and did not see the need of concealing elections in "secret voting".
  • In reality, the returning officers, mainly District Commissioners, engaged in blatant rigging.
By EMMAN OMARI
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One of the hallmarks of the Moi Presidency was the introduction of the 'mlolongo' method of electing candidates on February 22 1988.

The queue-voting system, was in reality created as a government vehicle to purge dissidents from Parliament although Moi explained that its aim was to introduce transparency in elections.

If a candidate garnered 70 per cent and above of votes at the queue stage, he or she was automatically declared MP. If not, a second stage of secret ballot was to follow.

Agents would stand in polling stations displaying posters of the candidates and voters would line up behind them.

BLATANT RIGGING

They would then be counted "loudly" and those with the highest number of people on their queues declared winners.

At a rally in Nakuru prior to the elections, Moi said Kanu was a transparent party and did not see the need of concealing elections in "secret voting".

In reality, the returning officers, mainly District Commissioners, engaged in blatant rigging, declaring candidates with the shortest queues winners and those with the longest losers.

Mr Martin Shikuku (Butere) and Mr Masinde Muliro (Cherengani) thus lost their seats.

There was an attempt to declare then Vice-President Mwai Kibaki the loser in Othaya as many around Moi doubted Kibaki's loyalty. The VP was so angry at the blatant attempt to rig him out that he said: "Even rigging requires some level of intelligence."

After he survived the bid to rig him out, Kibaki was demoted as VP and given the Health ministry. Dr Josephat Karanja, until then an assistant minister and MP for Mathare, replaced Kibaki as No. 2.

Mr Kenneth Matiba also had to fight to keep his Kiharu seat.

In the run-up to the elections, Kanu hawks had touted the benefits of mlolongo, describing it as the "most democratic election system in the world" and praising Moi for "discovering" it.

"As a medical doctor, this is the best voting system because it saves the patient (politician) from a (possible) heart attack… the secret one has shock," Cabinet Minister Sam Ongeri argued.

Mr William ole Ntimama coined a chorus for the campaign known as sema mlolongooooo! And the crowd would answer: Kanu pekee! (Kanu alone).

QUICKLY ISOLATED

Mr Sharif Nassir told Parliament Kanu will go the mlolongo way watu wapende wasipende (whether you like it or not). Then powerful Kanu Chairman David Okiki Amayo coined his mlolongo kende (queue alone) slogan to popularise the system.

Those who did not sing the Moi song were quickly isolated and even expelled from the party by Mr Amayo's Kanu Disciplinary Committee.

In the first stage of mlolongo voting, close to 50 per cent of the 188 electable seats were won under the 70 per cent rule by mainly Kanu loyalists as Moi's perceived political opponents were weeded out.

Then followed indiscriminate expulsions from Kanu.

Those purged in the 1988 polls started agitating for the return of political pluralism in what came to be known as the Second Liberation.