Kenyans' focus on presidency is misplaced, action is in the counties

Raila Odinga, then NASA Presidential candidate celebrates at the Supreme Court building when the court nullified the 2017 election. [File, Standard]

"There is an emerging - and a rapidly entrenching - notion in Africa that elections or voters no longer decide who their leaders are - whether in party primaries or the general election itself. That leaders are decided either by unaccountable party barons or by manipulated electoral management agencies, security forces, technology and data companies or courts.

"In this continent (and America is beginning to show these signs too), there is a widening chasm between voting and counting - a strange paradox of inverse literacy, where peasants and workers (most voters) know how to cast their ballots peacefully during the day on election day, but graduates and computers (technologically-aided presiding and returning officers) "forget" how to count on election night."