Key to clean election lies in solving Kenya’s poll ‘stronghold’ problem

Independent Review Commission Chair Johann Kriegler addresses a presser at the Crowne Plaza hotel on December 6, 2011. Kriegler made numerous recommendations, a good number of which were unfortunately ignored. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Kriegler was exactly right to point to this peculiarly Kenyan problem as the core issue that prevents Kenya from holding truly credible and free elections.
  • The bitter dispute between Cord and Jubilee over election laws shows that there is a crisis of trust in society.

The Senators discussing a way out in the standoff between Cord and Jubilee over the election laws should take time to read the 174-page report compiled by the Independent Review Commission, which was headed by retired South African judge Johann Kriegler.

Kriegler made numerous recommendations, a good number of which were unfortunately ignored.

The current presidential system, for example, was criticised in the report as being unsuited to a country like Kenya, with the winner-take-all competition serving only to entrench the country’s divisions.

The Kriegler team, however, homed in on one problem above all else that holds back the country from having truly free, fair and credible elections: the problem of exclusive party strongholds.

This is what the report found on this subject in relation to the 2007 election: "A further contributor and facilitator for manipulation at polling stations is the disturbing feature that in many instances (in the strongholds of both main political parties) effectively only the majority party was represented during polling and counting.

"The alert self-interest of competitors is all but indispensable for honest elections and it is a matter for serious concern that this safeguard was absent in many instances.”

The Kriegler team concluded that, because party agents of both the Party of National Unity and the Orange Democratic Movement could not be present during voting and tallying particularly in Nyanza and Central Kenya, it was impossible to verify the results from both areas.

The “abnormal turnout” witnessed in those two areas, however, pointed to fraud.

PARTY FANDOMS
Here is the low-tech solution I would propose to ensure that the next election is transparent: simply tackle this problem of strongholds and ensure that agents of the leading presidential candidates have unfettered access to all polling centres, particularly those in the strongholds of the candidates.

Technology is certainly to be embraced.

The Kriegler report strongly criticised the electoral commission for not taking up “readily available” technology to ensure the system of “tallying, recording, transcribing, transmitting and announcing results” was more transparent.

“Its failure to do so was grossly remiss and contributed to the climate of tension, suspicion and rumour in which the violence erupted,” the report noted.

Technology alone, however, cannot guarantee a clean election.

The bitter dispute between Cord and Jubilee over election laws shows that there is a crisis of trust in society.

It really should not even be controversial that there should be a backup to the electronic systems to ensure a smooth election and avoid the debacle witnessed in Ghana in 2012.

The Ghanaian electoral chief was here just days ago and made precisely this point before Cord and Jubilee (and their respective supporters) started fighting over this issue.

BE PROGRESSIVE
However, clean elections will remain virtually impossible if political parties with the strongest presidential candidates continue to essentially run elections in their strongholds.

In the last election, there were virtually no agents of Raila Odinga in Central province.

In 2007, PNU tried to send policemen as party agents to Nyanza because no civilian felt comfortable enough to venture there as an agent of PNU ahead of a bitterly fought election.

Kriegler was exactly right to point to this peculiarly Kenyan problem as the core issue that prevents Kenya from holding truly credible and free elections.

It should be possible to require that all parties and election officials allow agents of the competing candidates to be present during voting and tallying across the country.

Areas in which agents are barred from accessing polling centres should have their results annulled.

Kenya’s elections are among the most expensive in the world because of the huge trust deficit that exists in society.

The efforts to embrace technology are certainly to be encouraged to ensure that people’s votes count and are counted accurately.

Ultimately, though, it is essential to learn from the problems witnessed in past elections and the Kriegler report, with its many recommendations, is a good place to start.
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Kenya is one of the few countries in the world where the media regularly comes top in surveys on the most trusted institutions.

If it is true that the leading TV station in the country is charging tens of thousands of jobless people Sh1,000 each to apply to join its team of sales executives, that would be a major abuse of the trust vested in the institution by the public.