Electoral agency must go the extra mile to win public trust

At the height of the rivalry between Jubilee and the Opposition before the latter mutated into National Super Alliance, the bone of contention was demand for the overhaul of the national electoral body. Right up to the street protests towards the end of last year, the then Coalition for Reforms and Democracy was determined that commissioners led by Ahmed Issack Hassan and the secretariat under Ezra Chiloba had to go.

Behind the veil on CORD's face was the bitter after-taste of the 2013 election, which Raila Odinga claimed was stolen. He was convinced the Uhuru Kenyatta-William Ruto pair did not attain the 50+1 threshold to avoid a run-off and that the Supreme Court was cajoled to declare them winners.

Because Hassan's team oversaw the 2013 election, it is a natural survival instinct that the Raila-Kalonzo pair (even by proxy) would recoil and strike back at the mere mention of a second-round fight with Uhuru-Ruto under the same referee and linesmen.

It did not help matters that at the time, every argument CORD made against IEBC, Jubilee and especially Uhuru, Ruto, Kipchumba Murkomen, Kithure Kindiki and Aden Duale would take the other side. Soon it looked like Jubilee was an appendage of IEBC, something that raised the stakes in this game, catalysed the street protests, and eventually Uhuru agreed to talks. This sealed the fate of Hassan and his team.

Lingering mistrust

But even though the secretariat was not disbanded, Raila and his team had not come out empty-handed. The politics that dominated the selection of the new team would turn out to be another game of chess, with the representatives of each side in the panel digging in for the names they were goaded to endorse.

In the end, Wafula Chebukati, who reportedly scored 55 per cent, was picked by the President, and the champion in the race for chairman, Tukero Ole Kina with 79 per cent, shoved aside. Reason? One of the panellists told me that someone didn't like the fact that he was unpliable as unwrought iron.

Now we are only three months away to the showdown and there is still that wall of distrust between Jubilee and NASA. Raila's team has already declared there are plans by Jubilee to rig the election, with the rider that they would not allow this to happen. If they lose fairly, they say they would accept the result. But then remember the result would be what IEBC declares! They have even vowed a parallel tallying system and asked their supporters to guard their vote. Jubilee quickly trashed both!

But in response once again Duale, and you can guess at whose prodding, retorted that Raila's team was the one plotting to rig the elections. Now there is a stand-off on whether the tally given by Returning Officers at the constituency level is final.

Jubilee, which raised eyebrows in the way it fought for the legislation for a manual option in case the electronic system failed, has stood (yes!) with IEBC that this is unacceptable. Reason? The Chief Returning Officer is Chebukati and his role cannot be usurped. They also argue that this, if allowed, would license any Returning Officer to declare a result of his or her choice Tharaka Nithi style.

Well, this week we came to know of the strident steps IEBC has taken to firewall our vote against manipulation through understating or overstating. On the surface they look great and foolproof but then digital gadgets are operated by human beings. Which brings us to the reality of our politics; there is a deficiency of trust because of various historical reasons and from the look of things IEBC's new team has to work a lot more to win this trust.

As one former British minister once said, trust is like virginity, you lose it only once! As things stand, with the Government building up an arsenal against rioters and with NASA maintaining its stance, August 9 and the following days may be a true and cruel fulfilment of the horrific prophesy Justice Johann Kriegler warned us about. But then we are still allowed to dream that mbele iko sawa (the future is bright).

Mr Tanui is Deputy Editorial Director and Managing Editor, The Standard. [email protected]