Why Senator Ledama wants nominations abolished

Narok Senator Ledama Olekina has weighed in on the upcoming political parties nominations exercise, arguing that if it were up to him, nominations would have been a thing of the past in the country. Speaking during an interview with NTV on Tuesday night, the Narok Senator argued that there are other better ways of identifying the best candidate without using nominations. He proposed the use of scientific polls and consensus, adding that the two approaches if done well, could give better results than nominations, and prevent fall-outs and mass exoduses witnessed in political parties after nominations. He, however, assured all ODM aspirants that the party has put in place measures to ensure that its 2022 nomination exercise is free and fair. “Our political party has come of age and this year’s nomination will be free and fair. Ideally, if you were to ask me, I think we should avoid nominations as much as we can. We should use consensus, opinion polls to be able to have the right candidates,” he said. [caption id="attachment_5810" align="alignnone" width="630"] File image of Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina. |Photo| Courtesy|[/caption] Meanwhile, the ODM party in a statement released on Tuesday, March 29, 2022 dismissed social media reports that it had given direct tickets to some of its candidates including Homa Bay gubernatorial aspirant Gladys Wanga. In a tweet on ODM’s official Twitter handle, NEB chairperson Catherine Mumma said a direct ticket will be issued in areas where there is a single candidate seeking the ODM ticket. The party also said they will issue direct tickets to candidates that will appear popular based on the opinion polls as well as through consensus. “We shall only issue direct nomination certificates to single candidates in every electoral area, those who appear popular as per the opinion polls conducted by the party and those who will have been agreed on after the process of consensus” Catherine Mumma-NEB Chairperson,” ODM tweeted.