TNA nominated Senator Joy Gwendo. Photo courtesy of www.the-star.co.ke

TNA nominated Senator Joy Gwendo. Photo courtesy of www.the-star.co.ke

The National Alliance (TNA) Party of Kenya has thrown a rotten egg on its own face by the verdicts of the party’s disciplinary committee on legislators Senator Joy Adhiambo Gwendo and MPs Moses Kuria and Priscilla Nyokabi. The committee threw away the complaints against Nyokabi and Kuria but decided to suspend Gwendo, in a move that has led to public outcry of how political parties continue to malign women, at least that is the larger perception.

Kenyans feel and rightly so that the difference between the verdict of Moses Kuria who is alleged to have incited his constituents to violence and Joy Gwendo who is alleged to have disrespected the part is as stark as day and night.

Kuria’s allegations were dismissed on account that the shared video was edited hence could not be relied upon. Such a decision would only make sense if TNA made it public the video expert who was consulted to interrogate it and found the video edited. Further, a linguist who saw the edited video and stated that indeed there was some worthy and useful context that preceded the hate speech assertion must suffice. On the face of it, regardless of what he stated before, or the bit that was edited out, he has a hate speech case to answer.gwendo

For Joy Gwendo, it is alleged that she was disrespectful to the party, she was disrespectful to the Kisumu branch office and she was associating herself with the opposition (ODM) all these which brought the name of the party to disrepute. The complainant in her case is TNA Party chairman Hon. Johnson Sakaja. This decision has certainly and obviously taken a gender angle.

 

 

Johnson Sakaja took to Twitter to allay fears that the decision by the disciplinary committee is final.

Kenyans will be waiting with bated breadth to see how the reviews are done. While not much would be expected, the least would be not to rubber stamp the decision to suspend Senator Gwendo. Moses Kuria is likely to be let go. At a media forum early in the year when he had just taken over as the Gatundu South MP, he explained that he was put in charge, during the 2013 election, of voter registration, technically saying he won TNA and the Jubilee coalition power. Such a person is quite valued, regardless of his negative rants which cast aspersions on the party’s image. But as the review is being awaited, there are those who feel the decision on Senator Gwendo is prudent.

 

 

 

 

 

There are those who took a middle ground

 

 

What is sure is that the rotten egg on TNA’s face will remain smelly, even if it is washed away. How will in fact the review, in whom the complaint is the party chairperson, who will also preside over the review, rule against his own complain? Unless he declines to preside over it (he can still have a voice on the decision) or Kenyans are looking at a good play book; recommend suspension, then review process revokes it and the party is seen as democratic.

But what is most unfortunate is that the voter who should ideally make an informed decision from such, will not, will soon forget about it and move to support it at the time of calling.

For Senator Gwendo, if the review process rubber stamps the decision of the disciplinary committee, it is expected that she will head to the court to safeguard her seat. This will be a long process, which may end closer to the General Elections and the suspension be meaningless.