Trust issues have bogged down the voter registration exercise

A new voter is seen registering outside National Archives on Moi Avenue in Nairobi [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

The apathy towards the voter registration exercise is not surprising. Out of a target of six million, the electoral agency has netted just 1.4 million new voters. The most obvious reason for the low turnout is the lack of national identity cards amongst the would-be voters. And it speaks to the absurdity of calling on youth to register as voters while withholding requisite documentation to facilitate the same.

The other reason is the despondency that not only the youth, but the entire nation feels towards a government that is distrusted by most. From the foregoing, it is likely that even currently registered voters may eschew national elections next year citing the futility of a process marred with irregularities, as some courts have declared, and that does not adequately represent their universal suffrage.

Trust in government is one of the foundations upon which legitimacy and sustainability of political systems are built. It is essential for social cohesion and enables a government to act without having to resort to coercion. Suffice it to say, the Jubilee administration has probably been the most distrusted in Kenya’s post-independence history.

Take for instance, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s second term. Starting off after a contested election in which his main adversary boycotted, the president has struggled with issues of legitimacy, eventually incorporating his rival into a system of government that defies definition. Further, matrices of accountability, including those set by the administration itself, have been breached several times.

There is still no coherent explanation on how expensive short-term debt, like the various Euro bonds, has been spent. The government has not been forthcoming on details of the SGR contract despite assurances from the president. Anecdotal evidence shows scams and financial scandals to be investigated selectively depending on which side of the political divide they fall. Perhaps, as author Yvonne Adhiambo calls it, Kenya’s third official language of “silence” is employed by those who wish problems away by ignoring them. Perhaps silence is an eloquent statement on the recent Pandora Papers in which some Kenyans are mentioned.

But more odious is the use of coercion as the default where there is a trust deficit. Kenyans have watched with concern as the Jubilee administration has disregarded numerous court orders. Indeed some, like those that sought to have citizen Miguna Miguna produced before the High Court were ignored even as the outspoken critic of the government was forcibly removed from the country. There have been other instances where other critics are subjected to arbitrary tax audits so that it seems every voice of dissent must expect heavy-handed reprisals.

Questions arise: Can a government that, by its own admission, loses Sh2 billion daily to corruption be trusted? Can government spending, a major driver of Kenya’s economy, be relied on when there are still unsettled pending bills running into billions of shillings?

Is it conscionable for the government to seek for greater tax compliance when it already squeezes out every coin from citizens through onerous indirect taxes? Does a system that enriches only those in clientelist relationships with the government auger well with the majority indigent who only have peripheral access to food, education and health services?

Without trust in the government, support for necessary reforms becomes difficult to mobilise. Indeed, trust increases citizens’ tolerance of measures that seem invasive, annoying or disruptive. This explains in part why compliance to government-instituted Covid-19 measures was initially enforced through brute force.

It is easy to attribute voter registration apathy to the foibles of an entitled youthful generation. Yet it masks more virulent trust issues that should be of grave concern to all Kenyans. Markets and institutions rely on properly functional trustworthy governments. Defenestration of trust has ramifications that go to the core of the society.

Leonard Khafafa is a public policy analyst