Jubilee Party under pressure to use smart cards in nomination exercise

A Jubilee legislator from Meru County has insisted that the party should proceed with its initial plan to use smart cards in the forthcoming primaries.

Imenti North Member of Parliament Rahim Dawood argued that the initiative was agreed upon by members and immense resources have been channelled into the same.

Dawood opines that aspirants should be refunded money used in purchasing the cards in the event the party decides to use an alternative system to conduct nominations.

The MP disclosed that he has committed significant funds in acquiring 27, 000 cards.

Jubilee Party is faltering in its original plan to use smart cards to conduct primaries fearing that the innovation might be compromised in the process.

In a nomination plan released by the party secretariat earlier, Jubilee indicated that it would use a combination of smart cards and manual system to nominate its candidates for August 8 polls.

The cards were unveiled with much fanfare at Kasarani Stadium with party leader President Uhuru Kenyatta terming the initiative as a great milestone that would ascertain transparency in the primaries.

The party is especially wary of deploying the innovation in its strongholds where aspirants are engaging in cutthroat competition for the party ticket and would exploit any loophole in the technology to win the primaries.

(Story reported by Josiah Wachira, written by Moses Ngugi)