Last week the IEBC conducted by-elections across the country in what would pass for a dress rehearsal for the much-talked-about 2027 general election.
The campaigns were marred with shocking levels of violence, and in one tragic and regrettable case two people were killed as two rival groups battled for supremacy.
The electoral commission moved swiftly and not only read the Riot Act to the candidates involved but also fined each Sh1 million.
The 2027 polls are around the corner and, as now rather obvious, the levels of competition will be barbaric because the stakes are extremely high.
Our politicians will do anything possible to win, and in the process visit violence and chaos on an industrial scale.
Kipchumba Murkomen, the Interior Cabinet Secretary, must move with speed and early enough to send a strong and unequivocal warning that violence cannot be tolerated. Law and order cannot be a subject of debate.
The instability that violence triggers sparks unnecessary fear among investors and, by extension, impacts jobs and the economy. A few misguided and self-seeking politicians cannot hold the country to ransom.
The criminal gangs that some empty-headed politicians will hire for violence are already well known to the police.
This is the time to dismantle the gangs.
Quote of the day: “All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.” —Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad was born on December 3, 1857
