Laws notwithstanding, nothing will save IEBC

Barring a miracle, tomorrow is another protest Monday. Demonstrators, conveniently joined by petty criminals taking advantage of the protests to achieve all manner of nefarious objectives, will take over Nairobi again. The pictures of baton wielding police mercilessly bludgeoning Kenyans on the streets, common sights for those of us who lived in the 90s, will be back in international news.

After passing our “progressive constitution”, and instituting, largely in form, several good governance structures, we had been lulled into a false sense of peace. We believe the bad days are behind us and violence is an aberration. It is no wonder then that after seeing the CORD protests, we desire an urgent exit from possible chaos, and if the price to pay is to chase Issack Hassan and his team out of town, so be it. Now, I have no doubt that the IEBC team will eventually leave town. I do not however believe they will leave town because they are engaged in any unethical conduct significantly different from any public office in Kenya, now or in the future. I do not also believe IEBC will go because it helped “steal” the elections for Jubilee; that’s just convenient political talk. I do not believe they will leave because they have let CORD down on the Okoa Kenya referendum, though they definitely mishandled the process.