Ol Kalou bribery confirms politicians like it when Kenyans remain poor

Ol Kalou residents receives goodies from politicians ahead of by-elections.[File, Standard]

Throughout the past week, video clips from Ol Kalou Constituency have gone viral with discussions of widespread voter bribery through provision of mattresses, gas cookers, cash, and other effects. As well, videos from Democracy for Citizens Party rallies have taken the framing that despite the magnitude of voter bribery, the voters will vote for their preferred candidate.

Of course, this is not the first time Kenyans are witnessing large-scale voter bribery. However, the scale of bribery in Ol Kalou has been shocking to witness.

Ol Kalou brings to the fore one of the most enduring weaknesses of Kenya's democracy: The politics of deprivation. Every election cycle produces similar stories. Candidates descend upon communities bearing gifts that many families genuinely need. They pay school fees, contribute to funerals, donate water tanks, pay hospital bills, distribute food and provide household items that should ordinarily be accessible through decent incomes and functioning public services. If the road in your area is in terrible condition, you are guaranteed that in an election year it will be fixed.

Such attempts to buy votes are only made possible because millions of Kenyans continue to be denied the basic conditions necessary for a dignified life. One can argue about the importance of keeping the electorate deprived as basic needs become powerful political currency during the election season. The stakes of winning or losing an election are much higher in a nation where the government provides its people with guaranteed universal basic goods including health, education, food and infrastructure. It becomes much easier to win an election without any ideology when a packet of flour is the voter’s primary desire that you can meet at a rally. It’s politics of extreme hunger on one end, and greed on the other.

Kenya is not a poor. It is a country where wealth is distributed with extraordinary inequality. Successive governments have celebrated economic growth while millions continue to experience unemployment, underemployment and rising costs of living. Newspapers for decades have published stories of one corruption scandal after another. The result is a population that remains economically vulnerable even as political elites accumulate immense wealth. As well, our politics reproduce this cycle as anyone who wins a political seat can rest assured that they will soon be out of the rat race, and can spend their time in public office amassing as much wealth as possible, forgetting that the reason for that office was to lift their people out of poverty. But a politician cannot gain in the maximum if they do not rob their own people, and later bribe them in order to pacify them and secure another term in office.

Due to this cycle, politicians have little incentive to eliminate the very conditions that make vote buying effective. A population enjoying secure employment, quality public services and reliable social protection is less susceptible to transactional politics. Citizens whose basic needs are guaranteed are more likely to evaluate candidates on competence, integrity and policy rather than immediate survival. Conversely, a desperate electorate is easier to manipulate.

This does not mean voters should be blamed for accepting assistance. Such criticism often comes from comfortable observers who do not understand the impossible choices faced by families struggling to survive. A mattress received during a campaign rally may be the only proper bed a family has ever owned. Food distributed during a rally may feed children for several days. Cash handed out at a political meeting may pay medical bills or school fees.