KENYANS PREFER DECEMBER POLLS

Infotrak Harris CEO Angela Ambitho.
The pollsters released surveys April 4, 2012 that showed the majority of Kenyans prefer a December General Election.

By DAVE OPIYO
Nation Media
April 4 2012

The majority of Kenyans prefer a December General Election, two opinion polls released Wednesday show. The polls conducted separately by Ipsos Synovate and Infotrak Harris, place those wish to have the polls conducted in December 2012 at 72 percent and 64 percent respectively.

In the Synovate study that was conducted between March 23 and 30 this year, only five percent of the 2,024 respondents said they wanted the polls to be held in August this year.

However, in both polls, 12 percent of the respondents were in agreement that the General Election should be held in March next year as was determined by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Ipsos Synovate’s managing director Maggie Ireri said preference for a December 2012 poll is high across various parts of the country with Nyanza having the highest – at 80 percent. It is closely followed by Western (74), Nairobi (73), Rift Valley (73), Coast (69), Central (64) as well as North Eastern (59).

“The main reason given by those in favour of the December poll as the election date is that this is a less busy period of the year thus people are available to vote,” said Mrs Ireri.

“In the past, schools have been used as polling stations and it is not surprising that 28 percent of Kenyans would like the date to be during the school holidays so that learning is not interrupted."

Ms Ireri said those who prefer the March 2013 date argue that it will allow them adequate time for preparations of the elections while others felt that it was in line with the court ruling.

In the Infotrak Harris Poll, 16 percent of the 2,400 respondents want the polls to be held in August this year.

Angela Ambitho, the company’s CEO said 74 percent of those who preferred the elections to be held in August stressed on the need to adhere and respect the Constitution, while another ten percent said they wanted to "avoid violence during the holiday season".

“Those who support a March 2013 election said the IEBC was not ready and needed time to prepare boundaries, while others – three percent – said the court had decided the date," said Ms Ambitho.

She said of those who prefer a December poll, 51 percent of them said it was a long holiday and many Kenyans were therefore free to vote, 44 percent of them said Kenyans were used to voting in December while another two percent said there was need to give the IEBC time to adequately prepare for the elections.

Submitted by mydunda
Kibaki is clinging to power just like Moi did. I wish someone could run on the Kenya tribe ticket and we shall see if the GEMA or whatever other tribal organizations would survive.

Posted April 04, 2012 05:14 PM
Submitted by chukni1
@rotuba_safi, good question, why should we really care, what are the positive or negative impact on our lives if election are held on either dates??. The only persons to care are the contenders, Kenyans don't be drawn to their dirty wars, hand them the contempt they deserve.

Posted April 04, 2012 05:00 PM
Submitted by Ekiba123
rotuba_safi Very good question. This debate has become so stale and boring.....Can we hear something new?

Posted April 04, 2012 04:58 PM
Submitted by nyagahpro
be it after or before december but we want a free and fair election

Posted April 04, 2012 03:17 PM
Submitted by ace112
Which Government RESPECTS THE WISHES of it's Citizens?? Let's hope, NO PRAY is more like it, THAT the ALMIGHTY will BLESS our leaders with an epiphany so they can DO THE RIGHT THING!

Posted April 04, 2012 03:15 PM
Submitted by Wagrolia
The elections could be held in December only if -: 1) Raila drops his interests in Presidential post. 2) The ICC sets Uhuru Free. (remember -- who owns Kenya)

Posted April 04, 2012 03:14 PM
Submitted by progressor
Just like the PM said, but HE does not want that. Buying time to see if a loophole will materialise for Hague pals to get let off the hook.

Posted April 04, 2012 03:14 PM
Submitted by rotuba_safi
What pecentage of Kenyans do not care when the elections are held?

Posted April 04, 2012 03:13 PM
Submitted by edwardmoreu
i agree with the opinion poll conducted that most kenyans preffer december elections.

Posted April 04, 2012 02:46 PM
Submitted by seccessionist
December 2012 is the preferred date. At some stage even the IEBC and the Cabinet preferred the December 2012 elections. One wonders why there was a change of heart. Absolute power is sweet absolutely.

JAMES MURDOCH STEPS DOWN FROM BRITISH BROADCASTER

By JULIA WERDIGIER and ALAN COWELL
Published: April 3, 2012

LONDON — BSkyB, the British satellite broadcaster partly owned by the Murdoch family, said on Tuesday that James Murdoch had resigned as chairman to shield the company from the phone hacking scandal engulfing his family’s British newspaper outpost.

BSkyB said Nicholas Ferguson, currently deputy chairman, succeeds Mr. Murdoch as chairman. Mr. Murdoch continues to be a non-executive director of the company.

“I am aware that my role as chairman could become a lightning rod for BSkyB and I believe that my resignation will help to ensure that there is no false conflation with events at a separate organization,” Mr. Murdoch wrote in a letter to the BSkyB board which was made public by the company.

The Murdoch family has a roughly 40 per cent stake in BSkyB that it had hoped to expand in order to strengthen its hold on the British satellite television business. Along with its news division, Sky also operates lucrative sports, movie and general entertainment channels.

But as the hacking scandal within its British newspaper holdings gripped the nation last July, the family announced that it was withdrawing a $12 billion bid to buy complete control of the broadcaster — a major setback to its corporate planning and European ambitions.

Almost immediately, analysts began speculating about Mr. Murdoch’s tenure as chairman.

The news came only weeks after Mr. Murdoch resigned as head of his family’s scandal-ridden newspaper properties in Britain.

At the time, he said he would concentrate on his family’s lucrative television properties. He also said he would work from the New York headquarters of News Corporation, the global media conglomerate run by his father, Rupert Murdoch, who is chairman and chief executive of the company.

James Murdoch, 39, is Deputy Chief Operating Officer of News Corp., according to its Web site.

His resignation as executive chairman of News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of News Corp., came at a moment of intensifying scrutiny of the Murdoch tabloids at the center of the British hacking scandal, The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World.

The papers’ reporters, editors and corporate executives, including Mr. Murdoch, have been at the center of overlapping investigations by the police, Parliament and a judicial inquiry into a pattern of widespread phone hacking and payoffs to police and other public officials.

Britain’s regulator for the communications industry, Ofcom, said last month it was stepping up its investigation into whether James Murdoch was a “fit and proper” person to be part of the BSkyB board given the ongoing probe into hacking allegations at News International.

On Tuesday, Mr. Ferguson, his successor as chairman of BSkyB, said he thanked James Murdoch “for the outstanding contribution he has made” and said that “the board’s support for James and belief in his integrity remain strong. We understand his decision to step aside at this time."

Mr. Murdoch has been shedding titles since the scandal heated up.

Last month, in a continuing effort to distance himself from News Corporation’s British newspaper unit, Mr. Murdoch stepped down from the board of Times Newspapers Holdings. That entity was created to safeguard the editorial independence of The Times of London and The Sunday Times after the media conglomerate bought the British newspapers in 1981, according to public filings with the British government.

In March, the auction house Sotheby’s said in a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission that James Murdoch would not return to his board position. Earlier this year he gave up his position on the board of the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

A TRIBUTE TO THE MARY TED ONYANGO I KNEW

By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
April 2, 2012

If you know someone like I have known Mary Onyango, your mind gets clogged when you want to talk about her. Words literally get stuck in your mouth. You experience rare mental block

I first met Mary way back in Kisumu over three decades ago at Kisumu Girls High School. I was then a young graduate teacher newly posted to the town I had grown in. Mary was teaching in the same school as a fresh Form Six graduate waiting to join the University of Nairobi later in the year.
What struck me about Ted was her love for life, maturity and her hearty laughter. She was always a party girl who made sure every moment was a celebration.

A few years later, I was again to meet Ted at the University of Nairobi when she had graduated in economics. Despite her chosen discipline, she somehow relished in the performing Arts. In fact it was impossible to imagine that Ted and the late Stella Awinja Muka were not literature students. At that time, it was not easy to find any actress more prolific on stage than Ted and Stella.
I got to work very closely with Ted on stage when I directed her in the Miaha play in 1981. The play was written by novelist Grace Ogot and Asaneth Odaga.

Since the play was in Luo, it was almost impossible to get lead characters that had the command of the Luo language.

I was lucky to have Ted Onyango as the lead character in Miaha. The other thriller on stage was Dr. Penina Ochola- Nyar Kwang'a then of AMREF who acted the role of Mother in Law.

Support actors included Stella Awinja Muka, Val Mosley from the USA, Njeri Luseno from the University of Nairobi and Achieng’ Nyong’o among other actors from the university campus.
When Ted got the script, her mastery and interpretation of Luo idioms and proverbs was superb.
Under the guidance of the late Prof. John Ruganda of Uganda and David Rubadiri of Malawi, Mary’s humility to take criticism from non Luo speakers was humbling.

As the lead actress, she galvanized the rest of the non-Luo speaking cast around the storyline; at times interpreting proverbs and idioms with a lot of ease.

With Prof. Bethuel Ogot at our side to explain the deeper meaning of the story and the authors available to help the actors get the hidden meanings of multiple phrases, Ted took it upon herself to get the entire cast to eternalize the play.

When finally the doors were open at University Theatre for the premier show, we were shocked to have as our guests the renowned American Actress, Cicely Tyson accompanied by the then Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Robert Ouko and several American Marines in the audience.

On that night, the cast acted their hearts out led by Mary Onyango. By that time she had accepted her stage name; Nyawir Nyar Opollo- Nyawir the daughter of Opollo.

When it was all over, Cicely Tyson insisted on going back stage to shake the hands of Nyawir Nyar Opollo because in her words, she had never seen such a powerful actress in her life right in the middle of Africa acting in the language she never knew yet she understood the whole story without an interpreter.

This play became a national sensation drawing capacity crowds in Nairobi, Kisumu and Nyanza regions. It was one full month of packed crowds yet Mary the lead character never complained of fatigue.

Later, I was to again reconnect with Mary during the constitution debate in 2010 when she was already a Commissioner with the NCIC. Being active in analyzing the events leading up to the referendum, we were constantly in touch on phone or attending numerous meetings together.
At that time she had been ailing for close to ten years yet in our meetings in Nairobi, Mombasa and other towns, Ted’s uncontrolled laughter and love for life was all intact.

From then on whenever we met we would always laugh about Miaha and she would insist that I call her Nyawir Nyar Opollo. It is the name I called her to her last moments.

I remember her telling me about her condition back in 2010 before I knew I had cancer; that she would live her life until she dropped dead; that her condition would not force her to slow down.
In 2011 when it was my turn to suffer a cancer attack, Mary was one of the first people to tell me not to worry. She assured me that cancer was manageable and that she had lived with it for a decade.

Three weeks before she passed on, she called me after visiting another friend, David Nalo at Nairobi Hospital. When she came out she called me and had a long laugh about what David Nalo had told her about my last visit to him. At that time, she asked me that we should be calling each other more often and talking just to laugh because we had come a long way.

When finally the curtains closed on Ted last Saturday, I was stunned just like all other Kenyans whose lives shed had touched.

Rest in peace Nyawir Nyar Opollo! You fought the good fight and won many battles.
jerryokungu@gmail.com