Wednesday 22nd of Feb 2012 was a day waited for with baited breath by a huge part of NUC students body. It’s the day the various contestants for the 3rd SGC members were expected to meet and present their manifestos and policies to the subjects they were to lead if they emerged winners in the elections to be held 2 days later(Friday 24th Feb). They have been campaigning for the better part of the week and it was time to prove to the audience their prowles’ in public speaking which is an attribute every leader should have.
Like in American politics, the main idea behind a cross-fire is to have the candidates present manifestos and policies and debate them in a candid way before their voters and whoever seems to have the strongest points draws more voters. This is contrary to the hooliganism portrayed in NUC yesterday in the name of a cross-fire.
So eagerly was the event anticipated and waited for that by 2pm the hall was packed to capacity forcing supporters to stay outside. The voters, some as high as kites sung in praise of their desired candidates and carried banners the size of highway billboard adverts while some cursed and swore like sailors that their candidates were the best.And that's where they missed the point. It was the candidates who were supposed to market themselves and not the supporters marketing them. They were supposed to be an audience of the debate between the candidates and contribute by nodding or clapping briefly, I know many of you think I’m crazy for suggesting this but that’s how it should be done and especially now that you are in the highest institute of learning on earth-university, you should be civilized enough to know that. Period.
The ugliest part of the whole thing is when “missiles” were launched from each side in what saw Kennedy Ocholla,a former secretary general get hit by a stone as he tried to calm the warring sides. It’s by good luck that the former SG is either big enough or too hardy that the stone did not do much damage as intended. As the havoc was wrecked, the journalists continued covering the events and some suspecting that they may have been caught in camera doing the crime, they turned to trying to blame the journalists for unfair coverage as if they have a background in media training and when that failed too they tried to incite the crowd against the journalists especially yours truly of NESHCOURT who one of the them was seen trying show the others where he was. He was so frustrated that the people he was trying to incite against yours truly never acted for it seems they have better reasoning than him despite having been a former leader.
The contesters and their agents, the elections committee team and security officers had to be called in quick closed door meeting with the administration to avert a looming crisis as the warring groups kept on forming groups and approaching each other in a daring way. The tension around was tangible and were it not for a few brave students who restrained each other from fighting it would have been a disaster. Probably I would be typing this from the comfort of my bedroom at home.
CHAOS IN MARA HOSTEL AT NIGHT.
Enter night. After all the tension that happened during the day, a group of people who I will refer to as hooligans/goons/criminals stole their way to Mara hostels and ran havoc all over the place breaking doors and scaring the hell out of the poor young ladies. The guys had sticks and to make the matter worse some even had dangerous daggers dangling from their waists. They were chanting the names of two of the contestants and so it is ALLEGED THAT PROBABLY, they might be their supporters. In a period of less than thirty minutes the 18 doors, one belonging to a janitors office and one belonging to a contestant,Chelimo Emmaculate Onkangi had been broken.
It is such a shame that most of the doors that got broken belonged to the ladies showing how naive and uncivilized people can get if they think that violence should be still be directed towards women. I condemn such an act in this 21st century in the strongest possible terms as women are our mothers, some our sisters, our girlfriends, our aunts, our guardians and even our grandmas. How I wish they can recall the words of the former Maendeleo Ya Wanawake chairlady Zipporah Kittony..or worse still,let FIDA hear of it!
SECURITY MEETING TO DISCUSS THE CHAOS
It’s out of the above incidence that the Returning officer, the no-nonsense Prof.Oyaro called for a meeting between the candidates, their agents, security officers, the electoral commission and deans of students office to discuss on the way forward so as to avert any further crisis.
THIS IS WHAT THOSE PRESENT SAID;
PROF.OYARO
Prof.Oyaro is known to speak his mind irrespective of whose toes he will be stepping on without fear or favour.He is tough according to some and is even thought to be arrogant by some while he is also known to be among the most sociable lecturers in NUC.Due to his partisan stand in various matters, he is thought to be very fair as he is strict no-wonder he was elected as the returning officer.
He started by expressing his disappointment with the unfortunate event despite the yesterdays long meeting to discuss on matters to do with peace. “As the candidates, you deserve to take responsibility for what happened because it is criminal and deserves condemnation in the strongest terms possible. Do you know we can decide to send the whole lot of you, candidates at home? Do you think the most important reason as to why universities exists is to form SGC’s?’’Paused a furious Prof.Oyaro.
He continued, “As the candidates you should give us, ie the returning officer and the commissions enough reasons as to why the elections should not be postponed or all in all be banned from this campus until those in first year graduates in four years times? My members of the commission are saying that they don’t feel very safe working under this condition and they are not even sure of their security that they will be safe after announcing results tomorrow.In fact,we are here to step down right now unless you assure us there will be peace. If there is any tension tomorrow, as the returning officer, I will pack and leave for I have the mandate and power to refuse to announce the elections as well as to announce the winner. So starting with the two chairmen, tell us how we are going to replace the broken doors and the way forward?”Boomed the good old Prof While scratching his great grey beard as his eyes beamed with rage and untold wisdom.
JAMES THUO.
He was the first to speak. “It’s so unfortunate that such a sad thing happened barely hours after the peace meeting we had. I don’t need to go about the bush, truth is known about whose supporters were those, I therefore need them to take responsibility of their supporters actions. I say this without fear of contradiction that it is James Seneiyas supporters who were into it. They were chanting his name. It’s not a secret. I got a messages from trusted friends who warned me about the coming group of harmed people and I even informed the campus security,im so disappointed by the security because on arriving there they met the hooligans and started chatting with them in their native language and nothing happened. I call upon those responsible to act peacefully and stop harassing fellow comrades. I call upon the administration to bring in police to protect the voters tomorrow in case of anybody wanting to misbehave. It’s so unfortunate.
JAMES SENEIYA
Seneiya was the second to speak and this is what he had to say “I will start by saying that I cherish peace. What happened is very unfortunate and I was at Runda hostels speaking to some students when I got a text message informing me of what was happening in Mara hostels. I rushed there and managed to calm the situation down by talking to a few people who I found on the ground. I will offer myself to prevent such an event from happening again and I will continue to preach peace as a preventive measure.Meanwhile,I also would like to ask people not to inflate the whole issue and at the same time I ask that the police be brought not to protect some people but all the students.”Concluded James.
KOECH ESIDOE
He was among the first to speak among the contesting sec-gens. “I’m so sorry for the events that happened last night. I was attending a prayer meeting (he is the YCS, Secretary) so I only learnt of the unfortunate issue later. I think if there was enough time for the leaders to talk to their candidates after the evening peace meeting, this would not have happened. I also partly blame the internal security for all the problems as they only respond after problems have happened. This makes them act as first-aiders instead of security whose job is to detect and prevent crime.”Concluded the soft-spoken Koech
OKWIRI ALEX
This is what the 3rd year Communications and Public Relations class rep had to say “I was in Mara hostel preaching a message of peace when I got a text message from a trusted friend who warned me about a large group of armed people coming to campus. I got concerned about my security and on my way out, I met the said group walking inside the corridors chanting Semeiyas name. I later met Semeiya in the corridors and paused a question to him, He told me that he was speaking to them and they had calmed down. I have personally lost trust in the campus security and they are the ones I blame squarely for their failure to tame the situation.I'm also of the idea that the police should be brought in so as to bring in the necessary security during the elections.
JULIUS WESONGA
He was the first to speak among those in the finance docket. He had this to say “I will speak the truth without fear, I saw the group and they were chanting Semeiyas names. I think this is a plot by some people to scare away some voters so that thy leave for home and hence reduce the number of voters for some candidates. It is wrong and illegal”
DANIEL KIBELEKENYA
He was the second to speak in the finance docket and this is what he had to say “I’m very sorry for what happened. I went to Mara and found a lot of noise. Met Seneiya trying to calm the people and he told me how unfortunate it was that people were behaving that way. I personally think that the people who did that belong to another camp and were trying to use Seneiyas names so as to show how bad he is. Maybe the source of all this is the cross-fire”
MARIA AGWATA
She was among the first to speak in the health docket. She just asked for the police to be availed on the voting day to enhance security.
EMMACULATE MUTHEU
She said that she had no apologies to make for she had learnt about the issue during the meeting. She was not aware, She said that she squarely blamed the security and they should pay for the broken doors.
VALENTINE CHELIMO
She asked for the security issue to be addressed seriously and also asked for the students to be talked to on the need to enhance peace and live as brothers and sisters.
CHELIMO EMMACULATE ONKANGI
She is the only first year lady candidate contesting for a seat in the SGC.This is what she had to say “I’m a resident of Mara hostels and I’m a victim of last night incidence for my door in second floor room X.I went ad met the people making the noise and I ascertained that they were from the two camps. They were not only from Seneiyas side as its being painted to look like. I also want to say that my two agents have been threaten in the past and I want the security to handle it
FRANCIS ODOYO
He was among the first to speak among those contesting for the VCs or the Vice chairs seat and he said that the security issue was the main issue of concern to the students as at that time and requested for police officers to be deployed.
KENNEDY LANGAT
He was the second to speak and the “Tingisa gitole ya GANU” guy said that the only way forward was for the students to be preached about peace as peace love and unity was the only way.
JOSEPH NJOROGE
He said that it is clearly stipulated in the constitution that whoever is engaged in destroying property should be reported to the police and so the police should be told of the whole thing and left to handle it, he also said that it is unfair to ask the whole lot of candidates to be responsible of the mess created by the supporters of one candidate and hence let everybody carry their own cross.
I have deliberately left out the comments made by the agents for majority of them were saying something to support or echo what their candidate had said and also some were almost turning the session into a blame game session and were out to settle personal scores.
The dean of students the last to speak before Prof.Oyaro called in Mistry Mitheka who is vying for catering to pray followed by Fr .Dr.Rono for Prof Oyaro said that he had a feeling that the candidates and students body needed God more than they needed police. This is what dean of student had to say.
AMBROSE KOECH(DEAN OF STUDENTS)
“I’m very concerned about the well being of all our students and so I have liaised with the administration to avail very tight security tomorrow. We will have plain clothes policemen as well as uniformed police monitoring the whole process. We will also have a contingent of anti-riot police stationed somewhere within the compound who can respond in less than one minute in case they are called. But let us have peaceful elections and you are the determinants of peace for you can decide to be peaceful. We condemn the act that happened in Mara in the strongest terms possible and so let’s be disciplined. I urge all the students to k now that there is a circular from the HELB saying that any students involved in any indiscipline case, they be notified so as they withdraw their loans and support from them immediately. Thank you and let us observe peace.
*EDITORS FOOTNOTE
The number of Chelimo Onkangis room has been labeled as X as a security and privacy concern to the occupants of the room.
The NESHCOURT MEDIA, wishes to advise its fans, who are also the supporters of the various candidates to avoid jeopardizing their candidates position and tinting their names by doing various crimes under influence of alcohol and then letting blame be upon the contestants for when the law takes its course, it will only deal with individuals. This does not however mean that you don’t cheer for your candidates of choice.
We wish all the candidates success and also hope all the supporters will maintain peace during this short period of politics before we go back to the main business that brought us to NUC, STUDIES:
Exactly less than 28hrs from now NUC will have a new SGC and may we accept whoever wins as our leaders and don’t hate or hit your fellow comrade due to the results, incase of any problem, we have an efficient electoral team to guide us on what to do and so we should follow protocol.
Lastly,NESHCOURT accepts critics and praises from the fans in equal measure as long as it’s done in a genuine way but not as baseless threats. Praises drive us into doing even better while positive criticism works to build and strengthen our weak points.
THANK YOU FOR READING AND BEING A FAN OF THE TOUGHEST COURT IN TOWN!!!
