Kenyatta University 2018 Student Leadership Elections

Elections sessions are critical moments for those vying and their supporters. Unlike the previous electoral system that is voter centred, Kenyatta University has a different approach as per the new university elections policy passed by the government.

K.U will be implementing their new electoral system that is delegate based. Something similar to the US electoral system which involves the Electoral College made up of the delegates. The vote is made to choose the winning coalition. The delegates vote for the coalition of their preference after much lobbying.

Therefore all the interested candidates are required to attend a lobbying session where they’ll get to convince the delegates as to why they are the best flag bearers of their coalitions and pick a favourite team. All the schools must present 3 individuals i.e. 1 congressperson and 2 delegates from opposite genders to be elected directly by the voters.

The elected delegates are then expected to choose the executive i.e. the president and his team who must all be from one coalition which should be inclusive and diverse. This will total up to 51 delegates and congresspersons in charge of electing the new student governing council. The elected congress will then vote for a speaker.

Being an institution with 19 schools and collegescentred this new system was tested in the previous elections last year with mixed results. For it failed to answer such questions like:

Does it limit the constitutional mandate by the Republic of a right to vote and choose a leader of their preference?

But we’ll leave that to the outcome of the elections that will be a determinant of the system’s effectiveness.

Considering it is haunted by last year’s bungled elections which led to students unrest. More needs to be done to ensure that the students understand the new system and the inner workings and how it captures their voice and input.