Chiloba must bite the bullet, he cannot in good conscience ignore the hue and cry against him

September 1 is the day the Independent Electoral Commission’s CEO, Ezra Chiloba, should have voluntarily resigned. For the sake of personal honour, family and country, Mr Chiloba should have apologised to the country for failing it, thanked Kenyans for the opportunity to serve and bowed out. He need not have allowed hostile controversy to build around him.

On that day, the Supreme Court of Kenya declared that IEBC had failed Kenyans. We heard that IEBC had “failed, neglected or refused” to conduct the August 8 presidential election according to the law. IEBC was ordered to conduct a fresh and proper election. It is a matter of common sense. You cannot trust an important assignment with the same characters who “failed, neglected or refused” to do the right thing. If they are not conspirators, they are incompetent or negligent. On this basis alone, they should quit.

When an institution fails in the call of duty, the manager of last resort bites the bullet. As CEO at IEBC, Chiloba must bite the bullet. He cannot in good conscience ignore the hue and cry against him. Let me repeat – Ezra Chiloba owes it to himself, to his family and country to step down. He needs to go like a gentleman. Yes, he tried his best. Indeed, he did his best. Yet his best was not good enough. It is that simple. People don’t resign only when they have been compromised. They also resign because they have not been equal to the task.

But there is a more fundamental reason why Chiloba and his people should go home. Kenya is going down the slope because of them. The National Super Alliance (NASA) leaders have expressed lack of confidence in them and asked that they should leave. They have said that there will be no election on October 26 if Chiloba is still in office. If one of the two teams does not want you, how do you stay? How do you look in the mirror and feel comfortable with the person you see in the reflection? That NASA has questioned your competence alone should be enough to make you go – leave alone your integrity. A major player does not express lack of confidence in you and you just continue sitting there, smiling. You need to be exceptionally thick-skinned and dry-eyed to remain there.

Now the country sits in uncertainty. There are pulsating levels of hate in the political class. And they are cascading into ordinary places. It is no longer normal political competition between Jubilee and NASA. Belligerent hostility is what defines their relations. There is hatred here, hatred there, hatred everywhere in the country. If it began long before the August 8 elections, the invalidation of the presidential poll on September 1 took things to a new high.

The political kingpins have all but declared war. They are literally making a violent call to arms. You see angry people everywhere, screaming in declaratives and imperatives. At the heart of it all is Chiloba. This altercation about him is not a distant football match between Manchester United and Chelsea. It is a grave matter that affects every Kenyan citizen – at home and abroad. Critical stakeholders can no longer be neutral. Everybody, including his friends, family and Jubilee Party, should ask Chiloba to resign.

Violent response

In journalism, we have tried to walk the path of neutrality in the unfolding events in the country. We have sometimes even approached the deadlock between NASA and Jubilee as if it was some kind of entertainment. At all other times, we have handled it like a competition between two parties on the planet Mars. Not much serious effort is made to break it down. What are the issues? How do they affect us? Who is holding the short end of the stick? It is impossible to be ideologically neutral in situations such as this.

The human being dies in everyone who claims neutrality in the struggle between good and evil. The Italian poet Dante (1265 – 1321) told us, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.” This is neither the time nor place “to preserve your neutrality.” Stakeholders must stop telling Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta “to sit down and talk.” The issues before Kenya today are not about Kenyatta and Raila. The two gentlemen are only the face of our challenges. We have a stake in the outcome and a role to play, too.

When the Supreme Court ordered IEBC to do a repeat poll, it did not say that Chiloba, or any other individual, must conduct it. Chiloba is not the IEBC. IEBC is an institution. Part of getting it right is removing some people from there. If only one person must go in a failed institution, it has to be the CEO. That is why CEOs tend to be pampered and cushioned in excessive comfort. The day things go wrong, they will take the beating before anyone else.

Kenya can of course still go to some kind of election on 26 October, supervised by Chiloba and his team as presently constituted. Yet that would be completely unwise. NASA may call the bluff and refuse to participate. President Kenyatta may go on to be declared the winner. He may even be sworn in. Yet that will only be the beginning of unprecedented civil unrest and violent response by the State. The crystal ball shows unending mass action that will paralyse economic, social and commercial activities in the country.

I don’t know that even President Kenyatta wants to lead such a country. That is why Chiloba must go. NASA and Jubilee could then scale down some of their other demands and allow Kenya to breathe. But Chiloba must go.

- Mr Muluka is a publishing editor, special consultant and advisor on public and media relations. [email protected]