Opinion: Why repeat poll mocked our democracy

The repeat presidential election conducted on October 26 by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will go down in Kenya’s history as one of the most shambolic.

Coming on the heels of the Sh45 billion August 8 bungled poll that was annulled by the Supreme Court, Kenya once again threw down the drain another Sh14 billion.

In the run-up to the fresh election, the Supreme Court failed to convene to hear a case challenging various aspects of the exercise due to lack of quorum.

This was preceded a day earlier with the gun attack on the bodyguard of the Deputy Chief Justice in her official car.

More drama was to be witnessed when the Court of Appeal convened at night to stay the judgment of the High Court which had found that the recruitment of the IEBC returning officers did not abide by the law.

The High Court on October 19, 2017 had also decreed that the launching and maintenance of the digital governmental delivery portal using public resources to showcase the achievements of the Jubilee Government was an election offence.

Jubilee terror

Then Kandara MP Alice Wahome was videotaped assaulting a returning officer who resisted her attempts to influence results from her constituency.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i was also videotaped invoking the name of a proscribed organisation to deal with the political opponents of the Opposition.

Police brutality and extra-judicial killings in the run-up and on the election day is unparalleled. In addition to the unresolved murder of IEBC ICT Director Chris Msando, many were killed or maimed by the police. The disorganisation at IEBC was brought to the fore by several leaked memos with one from the Wafula Chebukati Chairman to the CEO Ezra Chiloba asking for response and explanations for the bungled August 8 poll. Five commissioners disowned the memo.

This culminated in the resignation and flight of one IEBC Commissioner, Roselyn Akombe, followed later by information that the CEO had proceeded on a three-week leave days to the fresh elections.

Then the IEBC chairman convened a press briefing the next day in which he informed the whole world that he was unable to oversee a free and credible election on October 26, 2017 because all his proposals to this effect had been shot down in the plenary by fellow IEBC commissioners.

The IEBC chairman went ahead to demand that the personnel who had been adversely mentioned step aside before the election date. The IEBC, despite the withdrawal of Raila Odinga from the fresh poll, included his name on the ballot and added the names of other contestants as late as four days to the election. Commissioner Boyu Molu, who was mentioned in the demands by NASA, was also to give a press interview accusing the IEBC chairman of not consulting his colleagues.

Turnout question

Several election observer Missions either withdrew or reduced their personnel to minimum levels, citing security of their staff. Roselyn Akombe, from the comfort of the United States of America, conducted interviews and issued statements to the effect that IEBC had been captured by political interests, thereby making it impossible to discharge its mandate.

All these happened as the NASA coalition held demonstrations demanding reforms at the IEBC and postponement of the October 26 polls.

The election day was characterised by low voter turnout after the NASA coalition called for poll boycott after their demands on the IEBC were not met.

There was no voting exercise in several polling centres and in the entire four counties of Kisumu, Homa Bay, Migori and Siaya. The chairman was to appear on national television indicating there was a 48 per cent turnout in the fresh election, only to go to his twitter handle to clarify it was an estimation and that the actual turnout from 267 of the 290 constituencies from the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kit was 6,553,858, which translated to about 32 per cent of the registered voters.

As the election results trickled in, Uhuru Kenyatta had garnered more votes than the turnout. The election left in its wake a fractured IEBC, death, destruction, unanswered questions, credibility and legitimacy issues.

The writer is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya