Pre-election pacts may be undemocratic, but brace for more

In the last week two weeks, Mandera County was in the news after Senator Billow Kerrow announced that elders there had decreed that all elected officials in the county, including himself, should give way to members of another clan to contest in the elections next year.

Other officials affected include the current governor, MPs and members of the county assembly.

After the 2013 elections, Kwani? published its eighth volume of stories titled Uchaguzi 13 with stories from across Kenya about the 2013 election.

It included behind-the-scenes stories from campaigns such as how the botched Siaya ODM nominations may have contributed to a lower turnout in the main election, and the impact of the Mombasa Republican Council at the coast, as well as others from Machakos, Bungoma, Nakuru and Marakwet.
It also had an election story about the Borana, written in the twin towns of Moyale in Kenya and Moyale in Ethiopia.

It noted that a bottle of beer on the Kenya side cost three times as much as its equivalent on the Ethiopia side and that people on the Ethiopia side were amazed about the computerization, wildlife and military in Kenya.

About 250 kilometers away from the border in Kenya is Marsabit, where an army colonel and a doctor were contesting a parliamentary seat, and if both ran, the seat would be lost to another community.

PAID-FOR WISHES

The elders had long meetings over many months and the case was forwarded to the Abba Gada, the traditional King of the Borana, who watched over his people from Mandera, in Ethiopia.

He summoned the candidates, deliberated further and picked the colonel, and with Abba Gada’s blessing he contested and won the race. It was astounding that a race could be decided from so far away, and even across the border.

During a TV debate ahead of the 2013 elections, the issue of pre-election pacts among communities in Siaya was brought up. Then, as now, Nairobi observers criticized such pacts as undemocratic and retrogressive.

But later on in Migori and Embu counties, pre-election pacts between communities picked candidates who ultimately won.

This is not to say that the elder system will work for everyone. Elders are not found in all communities, nor do they garner the same respect in all parts of Kenya.

In some places they are hired by political leaders to endorse preordained or paid-for wishes.

Elders are only one of the ways in which contestants as picked. But they will be more relevant next time, maybe even more so than political parties in some places.

Prior to devolution, a Transparency International survey found that two-thirds of parliamentary elections were not closely contested, as winners got double the votes of the runners-up.

MORE OF THE SAME

This made being in the right party the most important card to have ahead of an election, and the then three-piece, and now six-piece, voting pattern decided many election wins.

But the 2013 election also ushered in devolution and counties, and in many counties more than one community form significant parts of the population.

There were pacts reached where a candidate from one community running for governor would pick a deputy from another community in the county to act as deputy, and also to bring on votes.

County borders also placed key towns in areas dominated some communities, split other communities across counties, and transferred areas to new counties, which meant they had to realign their development plans.

The full import of what a governor was and what a senator would be able to do was also not really clear in 2013.

But three years later, it seems most senators aspire to be governors, most current governors want a second term to complete their projects, and some deputies want their governors to support and deputise them in their quest for the “top seat”.

So expect more pre-election parts, written or unwritten, to imbue elections in 2017.

Twitter: @bankelele