Peaceful election on time only irreducible demand by voters

Nasa leader Raila Odinga reads a list of demands regarding the repeat poll to a crowd during a rally at Jacaranda grounds, Nairobi, on September 17, 2017. Mr Odinga is not threatening to boycott the repeat election but to ensure that the poll will not take place. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The trouble is the toxic atmosphere where Jubilee must oppose every Nasa proposal, and vice versa.
  • All Kenyans yearn for should be a cessation of the war cries from both sides.

I don’t quite recall when I first, and last, heard of the term ‘irreducible minimum’.

It could have been during the negotiations that halted the 2007-2008 post-election bloodshed and brought Mr Raila Odinga back into government as Prime Minister in President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) administration under the Grand Coalition settlement.

A term indelibly associated with Mr Odinga’s political pursuits is back in currency as the National Super Alliance (Nasa) presidential candidate lays down his terms for a rematch with President Uhuru Kenyatta following the Supreme Court’s invalidation of the presidential election.

CLARION CALL
We are also increasingly hearing another mantra long associated with Mr Odinga’s combative brand of politics.

In the midst of the 2007-2008 carnage that nearly plunged the country into civil war, the clarion call from opposition supporters was ‘No Raila, No Peace’.

In the wake of yet another disputed presidential election (which, this time, was mercifully annulled and a fresh poll ordered in a historic Supreme Court judgment), Mr Odinga’s battle cry is ‘No Reforms, No Elections’.

RAILA'S DEMANDS
The veteran opposition leader has published a set of demands that he insists must be met ahead of the fresh poll scheduled for October 17.

Although Mr Odinga’s demands have infuriated President Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party, a sober reading indicates that for the most part, they are not really that outrageous.

Most of the nine items in the Nasa position paper are actually geared towards sealing the loophole and curing the defects that provided a leeway for the “irregularities and illegalities” that the Supreme Court found could not allow President Kenyatta’s re-election on August 8 to stand.

This includes ensuring the sanctity of the vote, guaranteeing transparency and integrity of the vote counting, tallying and transmission, providing additional safeguards for monitoring and assuring the security of the ICT system against hacking or manipulation of data.

RIVALRY
It also goes without saying that election officers who may have been complicit in the fraud that led to the disputed outcome must be removed from officiating at the repeat poll.

All these are reasonable demands that any contestant — including President Kenyatta — desirous of a free, fair, credible and verifiable election should support.

Only a party that thinks it has an inherent right to steal elections by controlling and manipulating the electoral process would reject such proposals.

The trouble, however, is the toxic atmosphere where Jubilee must oppose every Nasa proposal, and vice versa.

ELECTION
It does not help that, instead of putting forward his suggestions in the manner of reasonable dialogue, Mr Odinga is all about demands and ultimatums that to his foes only confirm fears that it is not about free and fair elections but about elections under the terms he dictates.

Worse is the accompanying rhetoric that threatens there will be no election unless his demands are met to the letter.

Mr Odinga is not threatening to boycott the repeat election but to ensure that the poll will not take place.

This is frightening and serves only to raise the spectre of a Mr Odinga who might be plotting to unleash extra-constitutional means in pursuit of his political aims.

FORCE
Maybe it is all bluff and bluster but, short of a legal mechanism, the only way a contender can ensure elections do not take place is by use of force.

Any such plan would, obviously, be aggressively countered by an administration that happily enjoys control of the forces of coercion.

I look forward to the Nasa leadership putting such fears to rest with cogent explanations of other methods by which they can actualise the ‘no elections’ mantra.

Mr Odinga may have good suggestions for a free and fair poll but infusion of unreasonable demands and inflexible posturing serves only to reduce space for honest dialogue.

WANANCHI
President Kenyatta has unleashed his own rabid attack dogs to exchange war cries with the Raila camp and wage war against the Supreme Court, civil society, media, and any other person or institution he thinks stands in his way.

Meanwhile, the clock ticks away towards a fresh election that must, by law, be held within 60 days of the September 1 court ruling.

All Kenyans yearn for should be a cessation of the war cries from both sides; real steps towards ensuring free, fair and credible elections; and, finally, elections on schedule.

Those must be the only irreducible demands.

[email protected] Twitter: @MachariaGaitho