Voter bribery: IEBC, anti-graft agency see nothing wrong in Ol Kalou

IEBC chairman Erastus Ethekon addresses a press conference in Nairobi on February 4, 2026. [Benard Orwongo, Standard

The by-election in Ol Kalou, set for July 16, 2026, came with good tidings for residents of the constituency. It began with the launch of train services on the revived Gilgil-Nyahururu line that has been neglected for decades.

The timing of the launch, however, set tongues wagging. But if the sceptics were reading too much in the return of the train that has been inoperational for over four decades, the succeeding generosity, especially by the State, beggars belief.

The stream of goodies; from 'Government of Kenya' branded mattresses, gas cylinders, boreholes, food and cash, has turned a constituency mourning its late Member of Parliament into an arena of State charity. Cabinet secretaries have descended on Ol Kalou with the urgency that, ideally, should be reserved for national disasters.

Roads have been tarmacked overnight. Electricity poles have sprouted along footpaths that residents never imagined could have power. One is therefore left to wonder what took the government four years to notice these needs, and why it required a departed MP and a looming, closely contested by-election to jolt it into action. Ol Kalou is not an isolated case. It fits a pattern that has become routine in Kenya's mini-polls. In the November 2025 by-elections spanning 22 electoral areas, observers documented cash handouts distributed openly by individuals identified as State and county officials using government vehicles. Mattresses and blankets branded "GOK" were handed to elderly voters in Malava, where State-allied individuals were captured on camera distributing the items.

In Mbeere North, the ruling party (UDA) candidate was accused of deploying military aircraft and government vehicles alongside significant public resources during the campaign. Election observers documented open distribution of cash, relief goods, blankets and other items as inducements across multiple electoral areas. This conduct openly violates constitutional and statutory bribery provisions.

Nobody begrudges residents of Ol Kalou development. Roads, water and electricity are their right, not a favour. What is suspect is the timing and the intensity. The sudden discovery of needs that had waited years for attention, now delivered with urgency days before a by-election, baffles. Why does this largesse never visit constituencies with no by-election on the calendar?

Voter bribery is a crime under the Election Offences Act, and carries real penalties. Yet the institutions charged with policing it, the IEBC, the police, the EACC, treat these incidents as background noise, reserving their energy for statements on isolated skirmishes and post-election violence. That selective outrage lets the bigger sin, the wholesale purchase of a constituency's judgment, pass unchallenged.

If these bodies mean what they say about protecting the sanctity of the ballot, they must act before votes are cast, not merely investigate after the fact. Ol Kalou's voters deserve development on merit, not tokens timed to expire the morning after the by-election. Kenya cannot keep rehearsing this script and still call its elections free and fair.