TNA REGISTERED A PERSON WHO DIED TWO YEARS AGO AS MEMBER

A dead person is among people illegally registered as members of different political parties in Murang'a County.

Benjamin Gachagua, who is the chairman of Kiharu community policing committee said a member, Lydiah Wairimu Gichuba, died on January 19 last year yet she is a registered member of The National Alliance (TNA) party.

“It is very shocking to find that a person who died months before the party was formed is now its member,” said Mr Gachagua in his office Tuesday.

Mr Gachagua said he entered the deceased’s identity card number on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) website out of curiosity and was alarmed to find that Mrs Gichuba was a party member.

Several area residents have also expressed disappointment after discovering they are members of various parties against their will.

The residents were shocked to find they were members of the Wiper Democratic Movement, Party of Action, Restore and Build Kenya, Democratic Party among others.

Murang’a County Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers official Philip Mwaniki also said he had been registered in TNA unknowingly.

“They should at least have asked for my permission before they made me a member of TNA. This is immoral,” he said.

Former Murang’a East District Commissioner George Natembeya has been registered as a member of Restore and Build Kenya party in Murang’a while another aspirant on a TNA party ticket has been registered as a Democratic Party member.

Parties have been accused of rogue member registration and have been given 90 days by the Registrar of Political Parties to clean up their registers.

The RPP has advised aggrieved Kenyans to write to the parties which have registered them illegally and also to IEBC. They could also opt to sue the parties.

Mr Gachagua said it would be difficult for parties to hold fair nominations if they did not have clean member records.

“Parties need to properly check their membership before nominations are done or else use the IEBC register during the exercise otherwise the process will not be fair,” he said.