COUNTRY IN NEED OF A GOOD PARLIAMENT

We are heading for our primary elections this coming weekend and we are going to exercise our right to choose a government.

This is another step to forming a fair, vibrant, accountable and knowledgeable Parliament and no one will blame anyone for whatever will happen as this process is open to everyone who wants to participate.

It is, however, disturbing when we hear that some people are forced not to participate because certain individuals are not allowing those people to participate or certain conditions are created so that some people are forced not to participate.

The formation of a Parliament is a result of certain processes that have been undertaken for some time. It is not a single event but a planned activity that goes through stages. If certain stages are not properly executed, the end result, which is a Parliament, will not be good.

This speaks directly to what the Elections and Boundaries Commission is doing in between elections. That at this time of the election cycle, where we are nearing the end, we are still speaking of individuals who do not allow their wives to stand for elections is an indictment on the EBC.
What have they been teaching people about elections? Why are females of this country treated like second class citizens who have to get authority from their male counterparts to stand for elections?

That the EBC waited all these years not doing anything about educating people on their right to form a government is now showing. Why would a man decide to divorce his wife just because she is contesting an election? Why would the man believe that he has a better right to contest the election than his wife? Is the wife supposed to live under her husband’s shadow forever? When will she be emancipated to be equal to what the man is?

This shows the lack of civic education on the electorate. If this is what we experience, I wonder what kind of Parliament we will have because its formation is the end result of the civic education that should be carried out by the EBC.

I am again looking at the great interest that everyone has developed around the vote for women campaign. Why should it take the King to talk about it before everyone starts noticing the problem we have?

Don’t we have an EBC that is supposed to be working on such issues over the period between elections? It seems a tad too late to start campaigning for women now instead of having educated people earlier about what is expected of them. People were going to know that they have to elect capable women if they were taught earlier instead of what we are now experiencing.
However, we must congratulate the EBC for having conducted the nomination stages of the elections successfully but we must ask ourselves whether what we have in the process now is what will give us a good Parliament or it will give us people who are going to follow instructions from Cabinet instead of holding Cabinet accountable.
This is because it is worrying that at this late stage of the process (a stage where we should now be experiencing the results) we still hear the EBC being worried and warning people about electing people who give them ‘gifts’.
This is not the time to be talking about that because the commission should have done that a long time ago.
I may be harsh and may be wrong to say that the EBC has not been earning its salary in all these years in between elections. If it were serious with its work it would not be calling the nominees for training this late. This is something that should have been happening over the years in between elections.
At this point the EBC should be worrying itself about how credible these elections are then still educating people. I know the excuse is always resources and I will differ in this regard. I believe that if civic education was done properly, people would attend elections without food provided for them and that expense should have been channelled towards civic education.
People would not need transport to take them to nomination centres and polling stations and that money would be used for civic education. With education, people will see the need to go to the elections without the assistance of the EBC.
Think of getting a slot in the broadcasting channels that we have with that money and educate the people. Or even get space in one of the daily newspapers and teach the people on elections in between the elections not only to act when the results have to be delivered because that is too late.

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