Why next year’s election must not be another thankless ritual

• My crystal ball tells me that these despotic states will soon have their date with fate and succumb to the aplomb and universality of democracy.
• They cannot forever deny the march of history. What’s my point? Elections are today regarded as a birthright of every human being. For most, this is an inflexible final truth — not subject to argument.
• But are elections all that they are touted to be? Are they a fiction that’s more trouble than they’re worth? In Kenya, we fought the British for the right to “govern ourselves.” We sought the “sovereign right” to be the masters of our own fate.

Sir Winston Churchill, the English imperialist many laud as an iconic statesman, called democracy “the worst form of government except for all the others.”

Methinks the British nobleman may have been right. But his wisecrack didn’t tell the whole story. That’s because it was mostly an ideological cold war quip.

He also famously said that the “best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” It’s true — the ignorance and gullibility of average voters can be stupefying.

But it is the chicanery and mendacity of politicians that’s the bane of democracy. Look at Kenya — and the world over — and you see the tragedies wrought by elections.

Which begs the question — are elections meaningless, even dangerous, rituals?

Indispensable requirement

Today we are all victims of a sweet Kool-Aid — our opiate as the masses. It’s that elections are an indispensable requirement for a political democracy.

In fact, we believe that no state can be truly legitimate without free, and fair, and openly contested elections. This verdict renders illegitimate monarchies like Saudi Arabia and one-party states like North Korea or China.

My crystal ball tells me that these despotic states will soon have their date with fate and succumb to the aplomb and universality of democracy.

They cannot forever deny the march of history. What’s my point? Elections are today regarded as a birthright of every human being. For most, this is an inflexible final truth — not subject to argument.

But are elections all that they are touted to be? Are they a fiction that’s more trouble than they’re worth? In Kenya, we fought the British for the right to “govern ourselves.” We sought the “sovereign right” to be the masters of our own fate.

The anti-colonial movement wasn’t an elitist movement owned by a few. It didn’t belong to politicians. It was a mass, social movement that rang in the heart of every “native.”

Who couldn’t be moved to tears by the sights and sounds in 1963 as the Union Jack was lowered, and the flag of an independent Kenya was raised? Tears flowed freely. Africans danced the night away. Had the long night of tyranny been lifted?

Kenyans didn’t send the British away only to succumb to a narrow visionless elite. They didn’t think the elite would usurp their sovereign will. But that’s exactly what happened.

Under Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and later Daniel arap Moi, a ravenous elite looted the country and reduced the average Kenyan to a hopeless soul.

The first democratic independence elections — won by Kanu in 1963 — were used as the basis to contract political space. Mzee Kenyatta and Kanu personalised power and created a kleptocracy.

Mr Moi perfected the predatory state. Thereafter, elections became “choice-less rituals” under Kanu’s de facto, and later, de jure one party rule. This pattern was only broken with the return of formal multi-partyism in 1991.

Even though multi-partyism resumed in 1991, the culture of the one-party state persisted. Mr Moi’s Kanu would win two more elections — in 1992 and 1997 — by both dividing and battering an unruly opposition.