When shall we have faith in electoral commissioners?

Each of our Kenyan – or shall we say African – traditional communities had a system through which they chose leaders and other community agents of social order. These were systems that were agreed upon by all and whoever was agreed upon became the accepted leader. One would be right to assume that there were rules and regulations, which is not to say that everyone was in full agreement all the time. The most important thing was to keep the community together, safe and at peace while at the same time focussing on the prosperity of all.

With the coming of Western economic, political and cultural structures of governance, such traditional systems of establishing and sustaining leadership have by and large disappeared. There are of course places where we still find remnants of the same. Take the case of leaders who are agreed upon by elders of the communities in the North Eastern region of Kenya. A major role is also played by elders’ councils in places such as Nyanza.

In our times, it seems to have become necessary that Western democratic practices be the agreed upon framework within which national and regional leadership is determined. Most African countries have adopted this political behaviour pattern. There had been a crisis in a small West African country – the Gambia – where the incumbent leader was voted out but had refused to hand over power until yesterday.

OPEN COMPETITION

Elections are an open competition in which somebody will win and somebody else will lose. Once the rules have been agreed upon and a competent referee appointed, each competitor must go into the fight to do their best but all the while knowing that they may win or lose. Situations have arisen, even here in Kenya, when some people have refused to accept results and, of course, we have seen the consequences.

The other day, the man who will chair the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission was approved by Parliament together with his co-commissioners. Even in the past, electoral commissioners have been agreed upon by our men and women in the political class. As we have seen, those who lose quickly turn around and discredit such a commission.

Will there be a time when we shall have an electoral commission that we all have faith in? Or could it be that a lot of us do not understand our electoral laws? Even though some Americans protested the election of Donald Trump, I did not hear them attacking their electoral commission.

Fr Dominic Wamugunda is dean of students, University of Nairobi.

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