Hypocrisy behind CORD’S call for disbandment of IEBC

Monday the 16th of May, 2016, Nairobi experienced a wave of violence as demonstrators who were calling for the overhaul of the country’s poll body clashed with the police. The protests were called by the opposition, Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD) to pressurize the government to disband the discredited Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission.

The flip flopping and double speak by the opposition leader; Hon. Raila Odinga cannot go unnoticed or escape a keen eye. Its common knowledge that the body as it is constituted is a direct handiwork of himself and retired president, Mwai Kibaki. After political horse trading and behind the scenes intrigues and maneuvers, they picked the current IEBC commissioners. It’s hypocritical for Raila to turn around and discredit the body whereas he handpicked half of the commissioners.

The felonies the commission is being accused of are among them, rigging 2013 general elections, flawed procurement of Electronic Voter Identification Devices (EVID), ‘Chicken gate scandal’ and bias during subsequent by elections in Malindi and Kericho.

The issue of 2013 general elections rigging is fictitious and is only meant to ignite unrest. It is common knowledge that independent teams of election observers who oversaw the elections declared them to be free and fair. Elections in Africa and most parts of the world tend to be rigged when the incumbent is contesting or the there is a handpicked successor being imposed on the electorate. In Kenya neither was happening given Kibaki was retiring and he had no anointed successor unlike in 2002 when retired President Moi handpicked Uhuru. The playing ground was fairly level, there was no use of state machinery. Jubilee Alliance had their Achilles’ heel, the ICC cases. They managed to circumvent and circumnavigate the issue to their advantage whipping tribal emotions and mobilizing their ethnic constituencies. Their well-funded campaign team comprising of youths below their forties appealed to a largely youthful Kenyan population. The flag bearers were also youthful and eloquent.

CORD on the other hand conducted chaotic party primaries. Unpopular candidates enjoying patronage of their party leader were handed tickets instead of popular candidates. ODM’s election board led by Hon. Frankline Bett instead of arbitrating nomination disputes was only rubberstamping candidates endorsed by the party leader. This led to voter apathy hence the low turnout in opposition strongholds not to mention the pre-election pockets of violence in the Coast region perpetrated by Mombasa Republican Council which dissuaded voters.

The issue of EVID had a lot of controversy from the onset. On getting wind of controversy surrounding their procurement, IEBC Chair Isaack Hassan, opted to go the manual way. However during a cabinet meeting co-chaired by Raila Odinga, the government opted to go for a government to government agreement with the Canadian government. Two sets of kits were supplied, Biometric Voter Register (BVR) and Electronic Voter Identification Devices (EVID). The BVRs had problems from the onset like failing to identify some fingerprints forcing some people to be registered manually.

It should be noted that there was little that was meant to be electronic about voting in 2013 it was supposed and meant to be manual. Balloting and vote counting were meant to be manual. The only electronic thing was results transmission. This was necessitated by the need to transmit real-time results to reduce anxiety witnessed during the doomed 2007 polls. However returning officers were supposed to avail corroborating forms 34 and 35 to the tallying center at Bomas of Kenya.

The protests by the opposition therefore are laced with hypocrisy and are meant to obtain short-term political capital. CORD made its bed, let them lay on it.