Campaign banners have begun to dominate the landscape as aspirants in South Rift step up their vote hunt in the run-up to the August 8, 2017 General Election.
The hour-long drive up highway 104 from Naivasha to Nakuru town in Nakuru County is punctuated with billboards and banners urging people to “support the Jubilee Party”, with pictures of aspirants for various positions.
But the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is not amused and has cautioned politicians of heavy penalties for breaking campaign rules.
Nicholas Langat, the IEBC deputy returning officer for Ainamoi Constituency where some of the billboards have popped up, warned that early campaigns were illegal and wants the banners and billboards brought down.
“We are going to take the pictures of the billboards and forward the names of their owners to the commission’s headquarters for legal action. We would like to remind politicians that the campaign period has not begun and they should not engage in early politics,” Langat told The Standard.
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According to the IEBC’s election operation timelines, the official campaign period starts on June 28 and ends on August 6, 2017.
Nakuru County Speaker Susan Kihika is one of the senior public officers with a poster of her image.
Along the Naivasha-Nakuru road Khikia, who has declared she will vie for a seat in the Senate, has put up five huge billboards with congratulatory messages to Jubilee Party launch but plastered with her image with the party’s Tuko Pamoja slogan. In Kericho, Governor Paul Chepkwony has a huge campaign portrait on a billboard erected strategically on Sinendet Towers’ wall within the Kericho town Central Business District.
And Nelson Koech, a Nairobi-based businessman planning to snatch the Belgut parliamentary seat from Erick Keter, has unveiled his camping poster draped on a wide billboard erected at the Kisumu Road junction.
Similar campaigns have been going on in Narok and Bomet counties. Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto’s campaign team has distributed campaign merchandise to market the Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) party. Education Chief Officer Joseph Tonui has been campaigning for the Kuresoi South parliamentary seat. He also printed campaign posters that are circulating through the social media.
County Principal Planning Officer Eric Ogada has been actively involved in social activities as he seeks to capture the Nakuru Town West parliamentary seat.
