Do not opt for 6 piece voting, opt for 4 piece plus 2 piece instead

Today and tomorrow are days provided by IEBC for Kenyans to deeply reflect before casting their votes on 8th August 2017. Although Kenyans are supposed to use this time to reflect before making up their minds on who to vote for, 99.9% of those who will show up in polling stations on Tuesday have already made up their minds on who to vote for as President. For the other 5 positions, there are those who have decided to do 6 piece voting or vote for individuals no matter which party they are aligned with.

6 piece voting is faulty, and so is voting for individuals. This is because Kenya today operates under two levels of governments – the national government and the county government, and when it comes to policy implementation, it is somehow irrelevant which party the county government is aligned with. For example, between 2013 and 2017 under the leadership of TNA at the national level, two of the counties that quickly adopted some of the ruling party’s policies were Nairobi and Migori, counties whose governors are ODM members. This tells us that a county government is very unlikely to impede the implementation of national government policies.

The national government and the county government should therefore be treated by the voter as separate governments – such that if your preferred Presidential candidate is Uhuru Kenyatta, you are not obliged to vote for a governor who hails from his Jubilee party.

Let me explain. Yesterday while in Nyahururu I talked with one of my photography models who would have wished not to vote for the incumbent Joshua Irungu, but she says her President of choice Uhuru Kenyatta has asked her to reelect the incumbent, and so she doesn’t have a choice but to vote for Joshua Irungu. This lack of choice stems from the belief that the President somehow needs a Jubilee governor in Laikipia in order to easily implement any Jubilee policies in that county.

The same way we weigh the presidential candidates based on their policies is the same way we should weigh governors. Governors have independent control of the county’s budget and as such should be able to implement its county policies without interference from the national government. The national government is also free to implement its policies across the country without interference from county governments. By and large that’s how things should work – and broadly speaking that’s how things have worked so far.

But again the implementation of national policies is dictated by the national assembly whereas implementation of county policies is dictated by the county assembly. It therefore follows that if you love the policies of Uhuru Kenyatta, then the person you should give him to help with the implementations of his policies are the Members of Parliament. Members of Parliament in this case are the Members of National Assembly, women representatives included, and Members of the Senate.

If your political inclination is Jubilee, you should consider voting for a Jubilee President, a Jubilee Member of National Assembly, A Jubilee Women Representative, and a Jubilee Senator. This is 4 piece voting. If you are NASA, the equation may be more complicated especially where all or some of the affiliate parties have fielded candidates for the above posts. But I guess voting for any of the affiliate parties should still strengthen NASA presidency, although voting for an ODM candidate would be much better for the president.

If however you decide to vote for a NASA presidency but decide to vote for a Jubilee Senator (Nairobians, are you reading this?) know that if the Senate becomes a Jubilee majority based on this single mistake, then you will have made your NASA president prone to impeachment.

Similarly, after you have chosen who to vote for as Governor, what you must do is to give him a member of county assembly (MCA) who will easily help him implement his county policies. One reason governor Kidero has been able to easily implement whatever policies he has implemented in Nairobi is because Nairobi county assembly is also under the control of ODM party. If however the county was under Jubilee (TNA/URP), then by now Evans Kidero could have been impeached considering the back and forth court cases with Ferdinand Waititu and the overwhelming desire by Jubilee to control the capital.

So now you know how you should do the over hyped 6 piece voting. If your vote is for Raila Odinga, then all members of parliament (MP, Senator, Women Representative) should at least be from NASA, although ODM would be better. This is 4 piece voting.

If your preferred governor is however a Jubilee candidate (e.g. all those NASA supporters who will vote for Mandago in Uasin Gishu), then the MCA you should vote for is a Jubilee candidate – forget Mandago endorsing Charles Okumu as the MCA for Langas ward. This is 2 piece voting.

Conclusion – No 6 piece voting. It should be 4 piece voting at the national level and 2 piece voting at the county level. No mixing up the candidates carelessly either.