A fake electoral document is no small matter. IEBC must get its act together

From left: IEBC commissioner Yakub Guliye, Chairman Wafula Chebukati, commissioner Boya Molu, and vice chair Consolata Nkatha Bucha Maina when they appeared before select committees of both Senate and National Assembly on the elections law amendments proceedings at Nairobi County Hall on October 5, 2017.PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Kenya held a General Election on August 8 that has yet to end because the presidential poll result was nullified by the Supreme Court.

  • The campaign period in the UK is 60 days. Kenyans spend too much time and man hours and far too much money on elections.

  • Credible polls will mean we stop arguing that an electoral form lacking security features is a small matter.

On June 8, the UK held a snap General Election. At about 5am the next morning, it was clear Prime Minister Theresa May and the Conservatives had won the poll.

But the parliamentary majority they enjoyed before it had been wiped out.

The UK moved on; with the Opposition Labour Party hoping for a new poll soon and the Tories hoping to hang on till 2022.

Last November, Americans went to the polls. The Democrats and their candidate Hillary Clinton believed Republican Donald Trump was toast.

WON

Mr Trump won and the only reason that election is talked about is that he bristles that he won fair and square but Mrs Clinton blames Moscow for her defeat.

In India, Mr Narendra Modi and the BJP in 2014 won by a landslide and handed the Gandhis and Congress their worst electoral defeat ever.

India’s politics shifted to analysis and critique of the unfolding Modi agenda which was touted as transformative on the campaign trail.

In 2007, in Kenya’s General Election, a disagreement over the result of the presidential poll drove the country to the brink of civil war.

COALITION GOVERNMENT

When a coalition government was set up to accommodate the claimants to the presidency, more than 1,000 people had been killed, hundreds of thousands more displaced and economic growth was racing in reverse.

Commissions of inquiry followed; the coalition government exemplified uncertainty and instability.

Three years later, six Kenyans, including the now President and Deputy, were arraigned before the International Criminal Court on crimes against humanity charges.

In 2012, a year to the next General Election, Kenyans were stuck in the last General Election. So 2013 was about 2007.

DECLARED

In April of 2013, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared Mr Uhuru Kenyatta elected President.

Mr Raila Odinga, unlike 2007 when he chose mass action, challenged the election in the Supreme Court, persuaded, as he was in 2007, that his vote had been stolen.

The apex court agreed with IEBC, but Mr Odinga’s followers, to this day, believe he won.

Kenya held a General Election on August 8 that has yet to end because the presidential poll result was nullified by the Supreme Court.

UNCERTAINTY

This action may shape the relations between the Executive and Legislature, on one hand, and Judiciary, on the other, in days to come and in ways unknown.

The court-ordered repeat poll has spawned unending campaigning and uncertainty.

Worse, General Elections leave huge craters in Kenya’s public finances.

The Theresa May election cost the British taxpayers £143 million; the 2015 one cost £123 million and the EU referendum of 2016 cost £142 million.

COST

Kenya’s August 8 General Election cost taxpayers Sh50 billion (£384.6 million) and the re-run of the presidential election will gobble up Sh13 billion (£100 million).

Remember the UK is the world’s fifth largest economy by GDP (3.85 per cent) behind Germany  (4.54 per cent); it has 46 million registered voters to Kenya’s 19.6 million; 650 MPs are voted to the House of Commons compared to Kenya’s 290 Members of the National Assembly and 47 Senators; and both UK and Kenya have 40,000 plus polling stations.

The 2014 Indian General Election cost taxpayers US$5 billion and in 2012 the US General Election cost the taxpayer $7 billion.

Bear in mind that the US is the world’s largest economy by GDP (24.32 per cent) and India the seventh with 2.83 per cent.

CAMPAIGNS

A total of 814.5 million Indians registered to vote in 2014 as compared to 200 million Americans in 2016.

Kenyans start campaigning a year before the General Election, which is when the economy engages the reverse gear.

They are campaigning now, two months after the General Election, and may remain in election mode well into 2018.

The campaign period in the UK is 60 days. Kenyans spend too much time and man hours and far too much money on elections.

CREDIBLE POLLS

But money-guzzling IEBC was created to make every single vote count by making it simple and convenient to vote and easier, simpler and transparent to count, tally and transmit results.

Credible polls will see politicians stop campaigning immediately results are declared because nobody will dispute the results.

Credible polls will mean we stop arguing that an electoral form lacking security features is a small matter.

A fake electoral document is no small matter and it has a cure in competent administration and delivery of free, fair and credible polls.

Get your act together, IEBC.

 Opanga is a commentator with a bias for politics