The National Cohesion and Integration Commission NCIC has rolled out a programme of sensitizing counties on the importance of peace as the country prepares for the 2022 general elections.
The importance of the meetings is to call for peace among various communities in the country that are affected by post-election violence.
Commissioner representative Dorcas Kidogo said the commission aims to ensure that Kenyans are in harmony all the time and not only during the elections.
“We usually witness chaos after every general election and we want to completely do away with such incidences because it is of no use that we are used to chaos after general elections,’’ said Kidogo.
Kidogo spoke on Thursday at the Sotik Pastoral centre in Bomet County where she called upon residents to maintain peace whether during elections or in normal time, saying the commission is committed to ensuring the whole country remains at peace and called upon the citizens to report cases of violence that may be generated by politicians.
“The major challenge comes in this region especially during the election period but we are optimistic that all will be calm in the coming days since we have had various meetings in this region and we agreed that we should support peace in the country since we are all one people,” she added.
Sotik Deputy County Commissioner Winston Murungi said the main challenge that causes unrest among neighbouring communities in the region was cattle rustling which had partially been contained and also called upon politicians in the region to watch out on their utterances especially now that the country is heading to the general elections.
“We have experienced some peace since we held meeting with our neighbouring communities especially on matters of cattle rustling which had been a major issue in this region. Now that we have done away with cattle rustling, it means even political leaders should give us a break on matters of political unrest,’’ Murungi noted.
IEBC election manager Bomet County Amos Obonyo said the major challenge that causes unrest in the election period is the party primaries where he said the commission is looking at a way of containing the party primaries that can be conducted without experiencing chaos.
His sentiments were echoed by the registrar of political parties representative North Rift Region Beatrice Nderi who said the political parties should contain the way they conduct party primaries instead of causing unnecessary chaos during the primaries.
“The way party primaries are conducted in the country need to be reviewed in a manner that cannot bring chaos and tension during the exercise as we also try to get away from containing the mode in which the primaries are conducted,” she said.
By Darlington Mose
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