Anxiety over Jubilee, ODM primaries slated for the same day in Nakuru

Leaders in Nakuru County have raised security concerns over party primaries for the Jubilee Party and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) that are expected to take place on the same day.

Nakuru County Deputy Governor Joseph Ruto has questioned the rationale for the opposition party, ODM, scheduling the exercise on the same day as the Jubilee Party that had slated its primaries earlier.

Both parties will now hold their primaries on April 21, 2016.

Speaking in Kuresoi North, Ruto urged the electorates to maintain the peace and refrain from clashing into opponents’ events.

“We have heard that ODM will hold their nominations here on the same day we are holding ours, we have no problem with that but we are concerned about the timing and we are calling on our members to exercise restraint”, he said.

Senatorial Aspirant Andrew Yatich said that security arrangements need to be put in place to ensure that hooligans are deterred from interfering with any of the functions, while at the same time calling the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party to reschedule the exercise, if possible, noting that the county has a delicate peace situation.

The ODM Party rescheduled its primaries following consultations with the electoral commission IEBC on timeline intricacies.

The party had earlier planned its nominations to commence on April 7, 2017.