Will Hassan's touch restore election glory?

By Oscar Obonyo

By settling on Isaack Hassan as their preferred choice for chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga may well have caved in to the Kiswahili saying, Mtoto akililia wembe, mpe.

Some MPs had pushed for the appointment of Hassan, who also emerged top in the interviews by the Dr Ekuru Aukot-led panel.

The principals accordingly gave meaning to the Kiswahili adage, which translates to "give a razorblade to the child who insists on handling it".

The Aukot team was all along under pressure, particularly from legislators allied to Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto, to accord preference to Hassan and other members of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission.

In essence, the Kalonzo-Uhuru-Ruto axis has been handed the wembe as demanded and it remains to be seen whether the same will cause the three, jointly or separately, lethal harm at the ballot box next year.

Four years ago, Opposition forces led by ODM’s Raila was equally handed wembe in the person of Samuel Kivuitu.

With two months to go to the 2007 polls, President Kibaki appeared reluctant to renew Kivuitu’s term as the electoral boss, compelling the Opposition and 25 diplomats to demand extension of Kivuitu’s term.

The President bowed to pressure by renewing Kivuitu’s term, but the electoral boss bungled the polls and hurt those who had campaigned for his appointment.

In Kivuitu’s instance, the wembe literally caused bloodshed. In the two cases, Kivuitu and Hassan were identified to run subsequent elections on account of their previous exemplary performance at constitutional referendum polls in 2005 and last year.

The Kivuitu-led team had an even longer experience and better record across Africa, but still messed up the 2007 poll.

Although yet to be confirmed, Hassan has edged closer to leading the team that will supervise the first General Election under the new Constitution. He now only awaits Parliament’s nod to assume the role of IEBC chairman.

Enormous task

Electoral expert Gabriel Mukele says the challenge ahead of next year’s poll is enormous – logistically and politically. Mukele, who served as Vice-Chairman of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), points out that the creation of 80 new constituencies and more ballots for newly established positions of governor, deputy governor, senator and women’s representative, will pose a major logistical challenge.

And with President Kibaki serving his last term, political temperatures are expected to rise as his co-principal, Raila, and principal assistant, Kalonzo do battle.

The other presidential aspirant generating heat is Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta; believably the President’s heir-apparent from his central Kenya backyard.

"A combination of all these factors makes the task ahead of IEBC very heavy and complex. But Hassan can still pull through if he taps on the available talent and experience, including consulting challenger, Koki Muli, who is experienced in electoral matters," says Mukele.

Hassan enjoys public support and the political goodwill. Besides, Aukot reports that Hassan, who has chaired the interim electoral commission since 2009, scored the highest marks during the interviews.

And when House Speaker Kenneth Marende read out Hassan’s name last Tuesday as the principals’ nominee to head IEBC, MPs cheered.

The reaction has two connections – that Hassan enjoys the confidence of Parliament, but that he is also associated with a political camp. Already he has had his share of the heat as chairman of the interim electoral body following alleged bias in favour of the Kalonzo-Uhuru-Ruto axis.

Dujis MP Aden Duale, for instance, is childhood friend of Hassan with whom they were schoolmates at Garissa High School.

The Dujis legislator is on record for claiming Hassan reversed the decision to endorse expulsion of ODM councillors allied to Ruto after he (Duale) personally appealed to the electoral boss.

And the situation was not helped either by the orchestrated public campaign by Kalonzo, Uhuru and Ruto, and MPs allied to the so-called G7, to push for the appointment of Hassan and members of the electoral and defunct boundaries commissions.

Mukele regrets that the politicians’ actions may put undue pressure on Hassan, "an otherwise promising performer". "Why do politicians root for independence of special committees, yet in the same vein want to penetrate them as they did by insisting that Hassan and the commissioners be included in the final list of nominees?"

Separately, Miguna Miguna believes "very strongly" that Hassan "is neither qualified nor competent to run the General Election".

Miguna, a former advisor of the PM on coalition affairs, says Hassan has integrity challenges having shown close connection to power barons.

"He is a disaster-in-waiting and any joy about his nomination is therefore misplaced and may be motivated by the understanding that he does not have the fortitude to deal with integrity issues and would allow our compromised politicians to continue with the culture of impunity, vote buying, ballot stuffing, party-hoping," he told The Standard On Saturday.

Integrity questions notwithstanding, majority of Kenyans still have faith in the yet to be confirmed Hassan-led team. This may well be because of people’s tramautising experience following the 2007 bungled polls or that the incoming team is being judged on same parameters with the ineffective defunct ECK.

High ranking

But ECK was not all gloom and by the time Mukele left office before the 2007 poll, for instance, ECK was ranked highly within the Commonwealth and the second best performing electoral body in Africa after Ghana. South Africa, whose former electoral boss Johann Kriegler, was dispatched to identify electoral flaws, was then rated third behind Kenya.

Before then, Kivuitu and Mukele had presided over the 1997 and 2002 elections and delivered results much faster than Hassan’s later team, within a record of 48 hours. But the 2007 chaos destroyed all these gains.

In the meantime, myriad challenges await the yet-to-be confirmed electoral body.

The body’s activities are likely to be entangled in legal impediments, including uncertainties over the election date and the validity of 80 newly created constituencies.