No one should stand in the way of credible polls

The day we get to a point where we conduct elections without fighting over impartiality of the Independent, Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is the moment Kenya will be proclaimed a true electoral democracy.

We hold elections every five years, and have done so more than ten times since independence. Yet we continue to fight over how to improve the logistical competence and efficiency of our electoral management agencies.

Why have we never figured out how to manage the logistical requirements of running a credible nationwide poll? Why do we always have to reinvent the wheel every single time we hold an election?

The simple answer, of course, is that the IEBC and its predecessors have never been designed to succeed; or to be in a position to build institutional memory and operational independence.

Our incompetent leaders always want to reserve the capability to illegally influence the outcome of elections and therefore protect themselves from wananchi.

Why else would an incumbent administration stand in the way of a transparent electoral process?

Let us not beat about the bush. The simple fact of the matter is that to ensure that only registered people vote, we need electronic verification of voters at the polling station.

In short, we need to have one and only one voter register. And we need to announce the results at the primary counting point – in this case at the constituency level. Anything short of these stipulations will expose the electoral process to rigging.

It also follows that those who oppose these stipulations have sinister motives. This is the simple truth, and everything else is a distraction.

Now we can argue until the cows come home about the need for a backup system, and that is fine. But the goal should be to pull all stops to ensure that Plan A works.

The future of the country depends on it. It is also true that given the amount of resources required if we really wanted to make a nationwide system of electronic voter registration system to work, we could make it work. This is not rocket science. It is a simple logistical problem.

Unfortunately for us, some leaders continue to think and act like we live in 1974; and as if they can simply get their way all the time. They have spent the last five years doing nothing but stealing our hard-earned tax shillings.

And now they are plotting to ensure that the outcome of the election is favorable to them.

These are men and women of little ambition beyond stealing. They cannot run a kiosk for more than three months.

Most of them have failed at running their own households. And so they feel obligated to do all they can to ensure they remain in office beyond this coming August in order to continue stealing from the public.

As a country, we should say enough is enough. President Uhuru Kenyatta should say enough is enough and order this crop of incorrigibly incompetent individuals to do the right thing.

We cannot continue running around in circles. As a society, we are ready for economic takeoff.

What we are lacking is a group of smart, nationally-oriented leaders who can detribalise us and focus our attention on the things that really matter.

The electoral process is supposed to facilitate our choice of those leaders. And it follows that anyone who works against an open and transparent election is also an enemy of the future. A century from now, Kenyans will remember those among us who fought against having transparent elections. Happy New Year!