Soj Students vote in new leaders The hotly contested NUJOSA election came to a close on Saturday with the widely popular Cedric Opany retaining his seat as chairman of NUJOSA. The NUJOSA elections, primarily concerned with journalism students at the UON, are held anually. the elections entered its homestretch on Saturday but the anticipated climax was witnessed on Wednesday when the aspirants debated against each other in fiery discussions. The otherwise calm election was at some time marred with some setbacks. Communication mishaps where by the Dean’s secretary failed to communicate on the venue of the voting exercise to the lecturer who had a class at the respective lecture hall. But the glitch that took the day and overshadowed the whole exercise was when a faction belonging to one chairman aspirant, Mr. Ferrari Odhiambo, made claims of election rigging. This led to insults being hurled all over the place reminiscent of city hall gaffes. But the whole situation was calmed down by the lead commissioner, Mr. Felix Odhiambo. “These are delays we are usually used to because of sensitivity of the elections”. The lead commissioner said. The last election which was basically a two horse race between Cedric Opany and Kevin Otiende, had a turnout of over 500 voters compared with to this one which only had about 350 voters. “Low voter turnout was expected because the candidiates did not have enough time to campaign due to the lecture’s strike,” said Mary, a clerk at the elections. The election turned out to be a first on many fronts: First, the hopefuls had the shortest time in the short NUJOSA election history to crusade for votes. This draw back was stoked by the fact that lecturers had called for industrial action against the government, agitating for the 300% increase in their income thereby crippling learning at the institution. With the short available time, the aspirants turned to the popular social media platforms to highlight their manifestos to potential voters. Secondly, since the inception of NUJOSA eight years ago, the chairmanship had always been contested by two political heavy weights but this time round, three contestants were in the running hoping to be at the helm of power. Thirdly a second year student, the little known egalitarian Jesse Kisenya had opted to take a giant leap of faith and plunge himself in the murky political waters. Lastly, Mr. Opany successfully vied for and defended his seat as the chairman. This was the first time ever a sitting officer has ever accomplished such a feat. As the current occupant for another second academic year he was pitted against the benevolent Jesse Kisenya and the charismatic Ferrari Odhiambo. the new NUJOSA parliament for the year 2012-2013is as follows: Secretary General Emmanuel Muasi
Publicity Secretary Joyce Kinyua
Vice Secretary General Joy Marakis
Treasurer Lucy Akinyi
Vice Chairlady Mickey Awuor
Vice Treasurer Velony Wanjiku
Organising secretary Damian Irungu
Vice organising secretary Magdalene Kanjenjo