Journalism students at the University of Nairobi voted in new officials take office except the chair, Cedric Opany, who retained successfully defended his position. But the Nairobi University Journalism Students Association (NUJOSA) election highlight was the Wednesday night town-hall style debate that saw contenders debated against each other in a fiery discussion.
The otherwise peaceful election was almost marred by miscommunication of where the voting will take place and allegations of vote rigging by chairman aspirant Mr. Ferrari Odhiambo. But the whole situation was calmed down by the lead commissioner.
“These delays are normal. We are usually used to this because of sensitivity of the elections,” said Felix Odhiambo, the lead commissioner.
The previous election had a higher turn out because of the rivalry between former chair, Kevin Otiende and the incumbent, Opany.
“Low voter turnout was expected because the hopefuls did not have enough time to campaign due to the lecture’s strike,” added Mary, a clerk at the exercise.
Due to the short campaigning period (brought about by the lecturers strike) contestants turned to social media to woe voters and printed posters with the hope the few students in campus would catch the colorful campaign material.
For the first time in the eight years NUJOSA has been existence, a second year student – Jesse Kisenya – battled it out with the seniors for the chair post. Though he lost, Jesse is more determined to dive into the student politics.
“My vision for the journalism department is to inculcate the ‘we’ attitude towards development, promote equality among journalistic scholars among other projects I am planning to initiate if I am up elected in the next election,” said Jesse
Opany, on his part, said he will work on providing a platform for students to display their journalistic and artistic talents
“I also plan to revive all stalled projects one being the establishment of a studio through outsourcing of funds because the administration has time and time again repudiated to release the money needed to launch one. Besides I plan to invest more time and resources on the recently launched student magazine ‘The Campus Clarion’. Through the three tenets I employ as my standard models Integrity, Credibility and Accountability I will take the journalism dept to new heights,” added Opany
James Alando
October 10, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Good that u posted this. but Kevin Otiene was never NUJOSA Chairman, correct that as soon as possible. the turnout was also almost as high as last year’s, verify it.
Kevin Otiende
October 15, 2012 at 7:25 am
Hahahaha James Alando, you of all people know that the country has its owners, and I am among them. I strolled the land like the proverbial colossus, hate me, love me!
James Alando
October 26, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Kevin, you know that we’re very good friends and there’s no hate between us. Only that “facts” must be published in a public domain like this, so I was simply correcting.
James P. Alando
October 26, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Kevin, you know that we’re very good friends and there’s no hate between
us. Only that “facts” must be published in a public domain like this,
so I was simply correcting.
James P. Alando
October 26, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Kevin, you know that we’re very good friends and there’s no hate between
us, even though there’s nothing you’ve done to impose yourself as an “owner”.
Only that “facts” must be published in a public domain like this,
so I was simply correcting.+-