Your vote will count; ignore Ngunyi’s invented voter apathy

Political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Early this week, Prof Mutahi Ngunyi used an apocryphal quote misattributed to Joseph Stalin, then credited it to a Nikita Kruschev to manufacture voter apathy and superficially justify 2022 election subversion. I advance that Ngunyi’s distorted information is meant to scare citizens from voting. And since the devil lies in the details, it’s easier to know that it’s a mere political whopper—as was the tyranny of numbers.

Prof Ngunyi, who has a following of 1.8 million, tweeted “Those who cast the vote do not count. Those who count the vote determine everything.” He attributes this quote to Nikita Kruschev. But let’s assume he meant Nikita Khrushchev—the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Political persuaders have clichéd this quote and, in most cases, blatantly misattribute it to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1879–1953). We should be vigilant against such fakery from political communicators.

Let’s assume that the political scientist did not want to plagiarise the widespread misattribution of this quote to Joseph Stalin, and so he decided to be original. So, he hurled it to Nikita Kruschev (Nikita Khrushchev)—that’s the precise science of political analysis because he is seemingly interested in the message more than the messenger. This is his art of spin-doctoring.

Closer research on the history of this apocryphal quote shows something closer to it from Boris Bazhanov’s, The Memoirs of Stalin’s Former Secretary (1992). The writer paraphrases Stalin, saying, “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how.” Of course, the message is the same, but the contexts are different.

But do you think Ngunyi’s interest is in the quote’s authenticity? No, his butter is set on the table before his prey. To be more empirical, Ngunyi adds a rejoinder poll to the tweet. It precisely garnered over 52,858 votes. I am not here to demonstrate the devil’s details in such political propaganda, but to show that for democratic progression, it’s dangerous to buy the ideation that those who cast votes do not count. It’s among the 21st-century charlatan political fallacies.

Is Ngunyi aware of the implications of pushing such a narrative? I say yes. His political science and predictions are products of what he calls “precise science”. He is conscious of what he is saying because he is tactical—he is not throwing punches aimlessly. He has mastered his art. Therefore, it is upon Kenyans to be wiser and diagnose his trickery early. To this, I would borrow from Niccolò Machiavelli’s wisdom in The Prince; that the political disorder that Ngunyi is injecting into our system will be a “wasting disease that’s easy to cure but difficult to diagnose early”; and, if untreated, it will become “easy to diagnose but difficult to cure” in the future.

If there is propaganda that Kenyans should not fall for, it is the narrative that there exists a Deep State and that their votes will not count. Of course, those who are opiated by the narrative and or believe in it already won’t buy my refutations. But I tell you, whoever believes in this leech, it will crash their democratic ego. So, Ngunyi’s form of manufactured voter apathy is what we should be fighting towards elections. It comes in many forms and manifestations, but it can alter the course of things for the worse.

Why should we expose a political strategy that has in the past seemed practical? Because it’s a Trojan lie clothed as truth that is sweet to some ears, but it could become bitter in the nation’s stomach. What Ngunyi is peddling is a predatory political strategy.

But since you cannot hold a spin doctor responsible for your actions resulting from his trickery, be careful lest you be derailed, thus say the political heavens!

Dr Ndonye is a lecturer of communication and media.