Ethnic political bug hits varsity polls

The full extent to which Kenya is torn along political lines hit the University of Nairobi on Friday as students elected their representatives.

The campaigns climax turned chaotic, leaving a student severely injured after opposing camps clashed outside the halls of residence in the wee hours. Others sustained minor injuries and were treated at the university’s health unit.

Mr Lenny Odhiambo, a second year student, is said to have been hacked on his head by goons hired by a rival camp.

The two contestants for top leadership of the Students of Nairobi University (Sonu) Parliament are Mr David Osiany and Mr John Ngaruiya.The results are yet to be released.

Campaigns akin to the 2007 General Election played out with the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Party of National Unity (PNU) factions manifesting prominently. According to students interviewed by the Saturday Nation, the elections had taken a tribal inclination.

“Mr Osiany is being supported by the administration, while Mr Ngaruiya has the support of senior PNU officials,” claimed Mr George Andayi, a fourth year student.

According to Mr Boniface Okello, a fifth year student at the School of Medicine, and a former executive member of Sonu, “previous regimes in the student leadership have been composed of students from the same ethnic groups and the administration has given a blind eye.”

There was intense lobbying at the main polling station outside the Jomo Kenyatta Memorial Library. All sorts of literature was distributed to “comrades” by the candidates themselves and their supporters.

Walking along the campus corridors, students devotedly distributed manifesto brochures to their supporters, each yearning to win a voters’ support in last minute campaigns.

Other posters were strewn along selected corridors hoping to capture the eye of the electorate. “Election to the student Parliament is a life-time pride for many aspirants,” said Mr Osiany.

From the lowest in the rank to the highest office bearer in the campus, it was apparent a desire to win the elections had been consuming them.

“Conscious men and women should throw themselves into the reforms of society and with unhindered will power,” read a sticker belonging to Mr Mugambi Munene, who aspired to become the representative for the Faculty of Engineering.

At the university’s main campus entrance, imposing banners of aspirants captured the attention of students and passers-by on the University Way.

The writing on the banners was aptly done – some pulling quotes from renowned public speakers like Martin Luther King, and famous quotes on leadership. But, perhaps, the most interesting strategy was on Wednesday when the candidates held a face-off debate at the 8-4-4 block.

The debate borrowed heavily from the campaign tactics of the just-concluded American elections where President Barrack Obama, whose father was a Kenyan, emerged the winner.

Candidates who aspired to take office were grilled by a panel of selected students on their envisaged plans if duly elected. According to Mr Dan Mwangi, Sonu’s outgoing boss, the national political campaigns should borrow a leaf from the university. “This is the way to go, we are setting the national agenda.”

But that statement raised doubts as to whether the current university student leadership could compare to the days of Lands minister James Orengo, Foreign Affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka, Dr P.L.O. Lumumba and former MP David Murathe, among others.

The then student leaders were known for highlighting the ills affecting the country and championing the rights of their colleagues. Today’s crop of university leadership shall, perhaps, be remembered for its flashy campaign strategies.