Kenya must prioritise electoral reforms to secure autonomy of IEBC

On Tuesday, Kenyans will go to the ballot box. Campaigns started so long ago that one cannot remember the last time the country was not in campaign mode.

There have been benefits to the long campaign. First, they have kept the need for electoral reforms on the agenda.

Second, they have allowed Kenyans a better insight into the character of leading candidates.

Third, the campaigns have been a useful civic education exercise.

Particularly pleasing is the emergence of a cadre of serious academic and policy actors who have used their knowledge to influence party policies and present party manifesto into a basis for the choice Kenyans must make.

ENGAGEMENT

This has helped demystify the idea of academic work as an ivory tower engagement.

Those like Dr David Ndii who have had the courage to articulate their thinking and marshal evidence to push their position now have a place in history.

But the character of Kenya’s electioneering differs from other countries.

Senegal had its legislative elections last week. I only saw evidence that the country would go to the polls one month before the ballot.

Even in the homestretch of campaigning, the tension, threats and do-or-die bluster was absent.

Nigeria is one place where elections have a similar plot as Kenya. Apart from “doom-laden predictions”, there have been repeated threats of violence.

Even though Nigeria went to the 2015 elections with a 2011 post-election violence hangover, the 2015 elections, though surrounded by biased security forces, were judged fair and peaceful.

CONSTITUTIONAL DISPENSATION

Our refusal to see the new constitutional dispensation as heralding a different state-society contract accounts for the difference.

Many Kenyans wonder why, seven years after the promulgation of the new constitution, our electoral processes are more intensely fought out with murderous consequences than previous ones.

The truth is that we care less about the constitution and only adhere to it when it serves our partisan interests.

Nigeria succeeded in 2015 because of advances made towards electoral reform and the perception that the electoral commission did its best to secure the results.

Thus, the resulting peace was due to reform initiatives that gave most Nigerians the sense that their votes will count.

In contrast, Kenyan elections are an exercise in grudging democratic expression.

EXTENDING FRANCHISE

Elections are not anymore about extending the franchise to an ever-growing politically conscious population; a population that is demanding and expects to use the ballot to express their will.

But this demand goes counter to our political culture that treats the state as an instrument of wealth accumulation and assumes the state is secured by the use, or threat, of force.

Thus, a shift has occurred in our politics from public service to personal aggrandisement.

We need the state for personal gratification; ours is a form of gratification that is not only excessive in its greed but also secured by an ideology of order protected by the security forces.

This greed has convinced us that hard work, personal sacrifice and frugality cannot lead to wealth.

Competition during campaigns has therefore become a fight for raw power, not for public service.

CONTESTED

Our elections are a matter of life and death. This is why the constitution of the election management body is a viciously contested process.

Its internal workings are carefully watched and manipulated for political advantage.

Free and fair elections are frowned upon and those within IEBC who work towards it are seen as a threat and can only perform diligently at enormous personal risk.

To be sure, all political parties have repeatedly undermined IEBC’s capacity to exercise its mandate autonomously.

However, the undermining differs between incumbent and the opposition.

AUTONOMOUS

The political opposition, feeling frustrated by the failure of the IEBC to remain autonomous, decided to use civic action through street protest to push for electoral reforms.

While the legal framework allows for such protests, and the opposition legitimately used it, this approach has ensured some electoral reforms but without necessarily strengthening the commission as an institution.

The frustration within the IEBC is that political pressure from opposition has not enabled it to institutionalise and prepare for free and fair elections.

The incumbent holds two advantages that have often stalled electoral reform.

They can compel IEBC to “obey” their wishes especially because they control the Treasury and the security agencies.

Control of the Treasury holds the financial muscle that government can use to stall reform and deter the IEBC from enjoying the autonomy the constitution guarantees.

If this threat is not in fact, it is in intent.

The writer is Executive Secretary of CODESRIA. The views here are his personal views and don’t reflect those of CODESRIA.