County chief asks candidates to maintain peace during vote hunt
By KNA, June 17, 2022Kwale County Commissioner Gideon Oyagi has asked candidates running for various elective seats and their supporters to shun violence ahead of the August 9 General Election.
He told candidates to conduct their campaigns in a manner devoid of acrimony, divisiveness and hate speech.
Oyagi cited incidents in previous election campaigns that were plagued with violence and reiterated that the government will not allow such occurrences in future. He said security agencies will provide a conducive environment for all political parties and candidates to conduct their scheduled activities in a peaceful manner.
Oyagi, who is also the Chairman of the County Security and Intelligence Committee (CSIC), spoke at a public forum on election preparedness held at the Kwale Cultural Centre.
HURIA (a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based at the Coast executive director Yusuf Lule noted politicians must make peace a priority in the election campaigns.
“Peaceful campaigns must take centre-stage if Kenya is to make meaningful socio-economic progress,” he said.
Lule also said the media should be agents of social and economic progress and not agents of war.
Kwale County Police Commander Josephat Kinyua said the security agencies have mapped out hotspots ahead of the polls.
The mapping, he said would help them in planning and coordination timely responses to electoral chaos.