President Uhuru Kenyatta has apologized to Kenyans following the move by Jubilee Party to cancel its primaries held on Friday, April 21.
“We unreservedly apologize to the millions of our party supporters and aspirants for the under preparedness for the magnitude and scale of the nomination exercise,” said Mr Kenyatta.
Speaking at State House, Nairobi, Kenyatta moved to assure Kenyans of the party’s commitment to deliver free ,fair transparent and credible nominations which they insist must reflect the will of the people.
While defending the party’s move to cancel the entire process, the party leader said: “We took an unprecedented and difficult decision to cancel the entire nomination exercise because doing anything to contrary may have resulted in a subversion of the democratic will of the people.”
What went wrong?
Following the cancellation, President Kenyatta, who was accompanied by DP Willima Ruto and the party’s Secretary General, Raphael Tuju, indicated that the party was hit by a huge shortage of materials.
“We were not unprepared; we were under prepared for the turn out that we experienced. Nobody expected the kind of turnout we saw yesterday,” said Kenyatta.
In cases where the party expected 25 and 30 percent turnout, it ended up recording a 70 to 80 percent turnout similar to that of a General Election, something the Head of State termed as an underestimation of the expected voter turnout.
What Next?
The Jubilee’s National Elections Board is now re-mapping the entire process with a new revised and detailed timetable expected to be announced at the party headquarters.
“We will ensure that voting material will be sufficient and that every single registered vote will participate.”
On claims Deputy Ruto is meddling with primaries in some regions, the Head of State emphasized that only party supporters will have the right to decide who will carry the party flag for the various seats.
Kenyatta further expressed confidence in his secretariat conducting credible repeat primaries next week.
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