‘Treating’ voters to be legalised

Politicians will no longer be deemed to have broken the law if they buy their supporters gifts or treat them to food and drinks in the course of campaigns, according to a new law prepared by the joint parliamentary committee on electoral reforms.

The team led by senators Kiraitu Murungi and James Orengo has prepared a stand-alone law on election offences, the Election Offences Bill, which was submitted to Parliament along with the report outlining how the electoral commission is to be reformed.

Among the significant aspects of the proposed law is the removal of provisions on voter treatment, the broad term used to ban a range of offences usually committed by politicians in the course of campaigns.

It has also taken away from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission the role of following up on election offences and handed it to the Director of Public Prosecutions. This means that while the IEBC can identify cases where politicians commit offences in the course of the campaigns and the election itself, it will be the job of the DPP and the police to see that offenders are prosecuted.

Currently, the Elections Act forbids politicians from paying for voters’ expenses and buying them food, drinks or refreshments or giving them money as an inducement to make them show up to vote or not to vote.

Voters are also barred from receiving the food, drinks or refreshments or money, with the law stating that a person found guilty of the range of offences known as “treating” would have their name removed from the voters’ register.

But the law has been difficult to implement.

Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula was set to be punished after the courts ruled that he treated voters in the course of campaigning for the 2013 elections but even after the Supreme Court rubberstamped the decision, a committee set up by the  Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission decided that it would not be proper to remove him from the voters’ register, which would have led to him losing his seat.

Mr Murungi criticised the existence of the offence in the law when the select committee met Director of Public Prosecutions during its hearings.

LISTING ACHIEVEMENTS

The Meru senator equated the law to that on bigamy, which bars someone from legally marrying two people but is hardly enforced.

Mr Murungi would later remark: “In this country, you cannot win any election if you don’t meet your supporters and buy them refreshments. You cannot be meeting and just look at each other.”

The committee also endorsed a proposal to bar a government from listing its achievements in a bid to convince voters to support it. If it is passed as it is, this would mean  that the Jubilee Coalition is barred from listing its achievements as part of its campaigns next year. With the elections less than a year away, the coalition has put emphasis on infrastructure projects such as roads and the standard gauge railway.

Analysts have in the past stated that spending on infrastructure increases in the last year of a government’s term as the incumbents strive to come up with physical things to show as development.

The proposed law states: “No government shall publish any advertisements of achievements of the respective government either in the print media, electronic media, or by way of banners or hoardings in public places during the election period.”

The IEBC will also have the power to demand from MPs, governors, deputy governors or MCAs the facilities or equipment normally in their custody.

The intention of this provision is to prevent the use of government resources in campaigns, which is usually difficult to implement.

The proposed new states that: “A member of the Commission (IEBC), any person designated by the Commission or any authorised agency shall have the power to impound or to order the impounding of any state resources that are unlawfully used in an election campaign.”

The law provides for those who commit that offence to be fined up to Sh2 million or be jailed for a maximum six years, or both, when found guilty.

It also lays out the circumstances in which a candidate would be considered to have bribed voters, with voters also likely to be found liable where they are found to have taken money from politicians.

Both candidates and voters who are found to have been involved in bribery would be liable to a fine of a maximum Sh2 million or a jail term of a maximum six years when convicted of the offence.

Also barred in the proposed law are cases where politicians use force or threaten to use it to influence an election.