We must resist the ‘six-piece’ approach in the 2017 elections

It is self-evident that we will not have credible elections unless the current IEBC is reconstituted. It is time we moved from focusing on peaceful elections, to a focus on credible and unimpeachable ones. In fact, the most important guarantee that elections will be peaceful is if they are credible.

And for this, reconstituting the IEBC must include key staffers who have been tied to the previous election and whose role was crucial, even if not so visible. This, luckily, does not need a big debate or process.

It simply requires the effort and focus of CEO Ezra Chiloba. He has not been tested yet, but his biggest challenge is getting a team whose integrity and non-partisanship cannot be questioned. But time is fast running out for him having been CEO for more than a year now.

The IEBC’s credibility can only be engendered by the IEBC itself. Yes, we all have stakes in the election process, but to ask civil society organisations to work at ensuring that IEBC gets a measure of credibility — as some Kenyan pro-Jubilee staffers at key donors have been insisting before approving grants to work on election related programs — is foolhardy and unacceptable.

Foolhardy, because that is the arena of propaganda which is best left to politicians whose commitment to principle is weak. Civil society can have strong political views, but these views are built on principles and ideals.

And unacceptable as it contravenes the key pillar of independence on which credible civil society is built. It is also a form of “white-mail” that reduces civil society to agents and contractors of the donor, contributing significantly to the closing space for NGOs.

Having credible elections is one thing, however. It is another to have credible leaders emerging from a credible process. That is the task for all of us as citizens. And this is where we often fail, forgetting or neglecting to register as voters, for one, and secondly succumbing to the seductions of our politicians to vote in a “six-piece” suit — voting for one party down the line — during elections.

BESEECHING VOTERS

We hear this seduction often. Most recently, Mr. William Ruto was beseeching voters in the Kericho by-election to vote for the JAP candidate as that would essentially be a vote for him. His candidate was declared the winner despite serious misgivings by the Kericho people, no doubt due in large part to the desire of the people of Kericho not to embarrass Mr. Ruto as he gears up for his stab at the presidency later.

But he is not alone. Mr. Raila Odinga is the master of this approach in the Luo Nyanza region, where he asks for the “six piece suit” so he can have his people around him. And who can forget Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta’s pleas to the Kiambu people during the campaigns for Governor?

The main problem with this six-piece approach is that the people who end up getting into political office have loyalty to only the person who got them into the office: The party leader.

They know that without the support of Mr. Odinga, Mr. Kenyatta or Mr. Ruto they would never be holding political office. The views and wishes of the community are secondary and the motivation to represent the voters as required is minimal. And it is here that we all lose: Except of course the elected official who has five years to “eat” and the one voter who seduced the other voters who can expect sycophantic support.

But we now know the power and impact of devolution and if ever there was a time for each of us to vote in credible leaders it is 2017. No matter how we feel about the presidential candidates and their running mates, we have a chance to decide on what qualities we want in the Governor, Senator, MP, and MCAs.

The seducers inevitably will try to work on us to ignore our best interests as constituents, in favour of their best interests as candidates.

But we must resist the six piece approach, for we will be the ones carrying the cross at the grassroots if we vote in people whose loyalty and commitment is to the one person rather than to us.

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