{"id":30803,"date":"2016-12-03T22:49:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T22:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/uhuru-calls-for-peace-ahead-of-next-year-s-polls\/"},"modified":"2016-12-03T22:48:57","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T22:48:57","slug":"uhuru-calls-for-peace-ahead-of-next-year-s-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/uhuru-calls-for-peace-ahead-of-next-year-s-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"Uhuru calls for peace ahead of next year’s polls"},"content":{"rendered":"

{President Uhuru Kenyatta has challenged leaders to ensure next year\u2019s elections are peaceful and credible.}<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not allow election violence to define our country\u2019s politics. Our politics should not be personality based but issues based,\u201d the Head of State said.<\/p>\n

He was speaking at a Leadership Summit organised by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) and Parliament at Leisure Lodge Resort in Diani, Kwale County.<\/p>\n

Mr Kenyatta assured Kenyans he and his party\u2019s campaigns will be peaceful and urged other political players to follow suit.<\/p>\n

The President and other leaders, among them Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya and National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, signed a peace pledge committing themselves to promoting peace before, during and after the elections.<\/p>\n

He urged the private sector to engage the opposition to also make a commitment.<\/p>\n

Few Cord lawmakers turned up after opposition leader Raila Odinga accused Kepsa of bias and supporting Jubilee.<\/p>\n

The private sector announced at the forum that it will, through the Mkenya Daima initiative, criss-cross the country and use the media to urge Kenyans to elect untainted leaders who value peace.<\/p>\n

The initiative\u2019s co-chairman, Mr Polycarp Igathe, said fears of electoral violence were a threat to business.<\/p>\n

Mr Igathe appealed to the government to crack the whip on leaders with integrity issues.<\/p>\n

Kepsa chairman Dennis Awori said with the political temperature rising, leaders had a duty to guide wananchi to avoid animosity and violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenyans have a right to elect their leaders but they have a responsibility to elect the right ones,\u201d said Mr Awori.<\/p>\n

He said Kenyans have a duty to hold leaders accountable without putting tribe ahead of reason. \u201cYou cannot elect a vulture and expect a parrot or a dove. Political leaders have a responsibility over their utterances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro said most people who engage in hate speech and violence are politicians. \u201cWe must all commit ourselves to a free, fair and credible election,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

TEAR KENYANS APART<\/p>\n

Speaker Muturi said Kenyans must not allow politics to divide them. \u201cThe national leadership must assure Kenyans that elections must never and should not tear Kenyans apart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

High Court Judge Msagha Mbogholi, who represented Chief Justice David Maraga, said the judiciary was ready to deal with election matters.<\/p>\n

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chief Executive Ezra Chiloba explained the frustrations his team faced when clearing candidates for elective positions.<\/p>\n

He said the commission relied on information from agencies like the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, police and Director of Public Prosecutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless there is contrary evidence, we go with that. A case under investigation cannot be a factor in disqualifying a candidate because the matter has not been determined,\u201d Mr Chiloba said.<\/p>\n

He also said unlike before, only voters whose names are captured in the biometric register will be allowed to vote.<\/p>\n

Kenyans in the diaspora will be allowed to vote for the president but Mr Chiloba said they were considering the eligible countries.<\/p>\n

Participants blamed weak law enforcement for politicians with serious cases colluding with lawyers and judicial officers to delay them in the courts.<\/p>\n

They said agencies mandated to bar aspirants who failed to meet the constitutional leadership and integrity requirements had failed Kenyans.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{President Uhuru Kenyatta has challenged leaders to ensure next year\u2019s elections are peaceful and credible.} \u201cWe should not allow election violence to define our country\u2019s politics. Our politics should not be personality based but issues based,\u201d the Head of State said. He was speaking at a Leadership Summit organised by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-30803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30803"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=30803"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=30803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}