Possibility of feud over electoral system continuing too terrible to contemplate

The Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis) was touted as the ultimate solution to the government’s unwieldy bookkeeping systems. Payments would be processed and real-time information made available at the touch of a button. The old manual process that was so prone to error and manipulation would be replaced by a high-tech electronic system that would be impenetrable to fraudsters and would make obsolete the legendary round of paper-shuffling and missing files and vouchers. Oh well, we all know how that one turned out. Right now some public servants are suffering the curse of delayed salaries because the electronic payroll system seems to be crashing. And before, that we all saw the extent to which Ifmis was manipulated by corruption cartels in government to steal billions from the public coffers.

We learnt the hard way that technology fails, or can be designed to fail. The modern bank robber does not barge into the banking hall with guns blazing to empty hard cash into bags. No, she sits in front of a computer keyboard and empties the safe without the risk of being pumped full of lead. In the same way, the modern election thief does not manually stuff ballot boxes. It is all done electronically.

Kenya is currently in the throes of yet another totally unnecessary political feud over the electoral system that could continue on to the General Election. Viewed against our history of violent electoral conflict, that is a possibility too terrible to contemplate.

STREET PROTESTS

Cord has called for a resumption of street protests for early in the coming year in protest at Jubilee unilaterally ramming through changes to the electoral laws amended just three months ago. Given Cord’s habitual inability or unwillingness to hold peaceful assemblies, and the government’s penchant for employing violence against legitimate political dissent, chances are more than even that the protests could turn bloody.

Violence breeds violence, and Kenya cannot afford a countdown to the polls in such an environment.

Sometimes it appears that President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition chief Raila Odinga are just spoiling for a fight, and the rest of us are just expendable pawns.

The issue at hand, on the surface, looks very simple. Jubilee has pushed through an amendment that provides for manual backup of the electoral process, while Cord insists on retaining the exclusively electronic system mandated by the law negotiated under a bipartisan committee.

Truth be told, the law mandating purely electronic voter registration, identification, and results transmissions systems did not take into account the possibility that technology can fail or be corrupted. Reference Ifmis. It might, therefore, seem like a good thing that the law be amended before it is too late. But then this is not about the statute law, but about flexing political muscle. Jubilee knows very well that it is outright dishonesty to trash a negotiated settlement by pushing through amendments without the consent of the other side. In turn, Cord will in moments of honesty admit that electoral technology is not fool-proof.

BE WORRIED

Technology is only as good as the honesty and competence of the people managing it. In fact, Cord should be worried that Jubilee will have more opportunity and machinery than it to infiltrate and manipulate the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

Hence it should be the opposition demanding a backup system, not the government.

Has anyone considered that Jubilee might be deliberately leading Cord up the garden path? It has conjured up the excuse that Cord is plotting to rig the elections through technology, and the latter counters that the governing coalition is trying to rig by engineering eventual resort to a manual system.

Along the way, Jubilee might listen to public pressure and abandon the quest for manual backup, knowing that it will be the one capable of influencing the appointment of pliable election officers and backroom techies. Before that, there is the threat of violence that could compromise the entire election. The bosses on both sides must urgently restrain their mouthpieces and hammer out a compromise. They could agree that a backup is mandatory, but leave it to the election managers to identify the most suitable mechanism, without specific reference to a manual system. In any case, the manual backup in terms of voting register and marked ballot papers will still be there even without specific reference in the law.

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@Macharia Gaitho