10 things about the University of Nairobi students’ elections
The Students Organisation of Nairobi University (SONU) elections were held Friday and the mayhem around campuses could easily be confused for an election of some workers’ union leaders of something bigger.
Here are ten things about the most popular campus elections:
1. Votes garnered do not guarantee a win for either candidates. The elections, though overseen by election officials often have hired officials sneaking in ballot boxes with marked ballot papers before counting starts to ensure a win for the ‘right’ candidate.
2. National politics influence the outcome of the students’ election. The candidates have campaign posters that have colors of leading political parties of coalitions that they align themselves to. In some instances they even use national leaders’ images in the posters.
3. The election campaigns are done by well-oiled machines. The amount of money that is dished out to the students by the candidates is ridiculous. Millions are used during these annual elections and much of it goes into buying votes for a candidate. Some have budgets of as much as Sh7 million drawn for the elections.
4. Ethnicity and tribalism is well played out during the campaigns. The candidates often seek support from their tribal organization leaders who then endorse them to students from their tribes. Meetings are often held for members of the tribes from which top candidates are from asking students to support ‘their own.’
5, The top seat which is SONU chairmanship has never been won by a female student. Since the initiation of the elections, male students have always been elected to the highest office despite several attempts by female students to clinch it.
Recently, the election board allowed for a chairman to have a running mate to be the vice chairman and that has given the female students a chance to come close to the top seat.
6. The elections and campaigns are often violent. Guns and daggers are drawn during the campaign period and the word ‘goons’ is very common among comrades every time there is an upcoming election. Candidates hire people to torment or physically injure their competitors or to intimidate them to step down from the race.
7. The elected student leaders control a kitty that runs into millions of shillings. The university currently has 79,000 students according to the fact sheet uploaded on the website. Annual contribution to SONU by regular students is usually Sh500 per student while parallel course student remit Sh1000 each. Elected students therefore control a kitty of above Sh 60 million every year.
8. The elections act as a launching pad for political careers. A good number of past and present Kenyan politicians cut their teeth as student leaders at UoN. The student elections and even activism give them exposure to politics and they later join the national campaigns to obtain top political positions.
9. Top election posts are dominated by students from the main campus. Most candidates vying for chairmanship and other top positions are students at the university’s main campus with few instances having candidates from Parklands or Lower Kabete Campuses. There are however posts set aside for Campus Representatives.
10. Elective positions are mostly dominated by regular students. Parallel students rarely get involved in campus elections as they have either little time to catch up on who is running for what post or they even do not know other students apart from those in their respective classes. There is however a post set aside for a Module Two students’ representative.