Getting more people on the gravy train won't solve Kenya's problems

The Church is an integral party of governance in this country but calls for the expansion of Government is not a solution to historical electoral injustices.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), through Secretary General Peter Karanja, has once again lobbied for the creation of the positions of Official Leader of Opposition, Prime Minister and two deputies.

According to NCCK, this will help to promote inclusivity and ownership of Government, and is better than the current set up where the winner takes everything and the loser gets nothing, resulting in the fierce political tensions in the country.

It is understandable that the Church is a focal point for the convergence of political diehards from opposing sides and thus, it may want to come in and foster that which, in their view, would be a means of appeasing both the winner and the loser.

But in a country where the history of presidential elections has been marred by controversy, a proposal to change the Constitution without first addressing the root causes of electoral injustices is totally unacceptable and in bad faith.

Samuel Kivuitu, the chairman of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), is on record as saying that despite announcing former President Mwai Kibaki as winner of the 2007 presidential elections, he was not sure who really won.

Many questions

Despite the Supreme Court under former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga upholding President Uhuru Kenyatta’s 2013 victory, many questions remain unanswered as far as the judgement of that presidential petition was rendered.

The court declined the admission of a 900-page affidavit in support of the petition, arguing that it was filed after the submission deadline.

An appeal for an audit of the ICT system of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was also declined. Equally, Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG), one of the petitioners in the 2013 petition, requested IEBC to produce all the registers used to identify voters at polling stations.

This was equally rejected by the court.

During the second presidential petition of 2017 filed by Raila Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka, the Supreme Court ordered IEBC, under Chairman Wafula Chebukati, to open its servers for scrutiny by parties in the case and court staff.

It is in the public domain that IEBC did not comply with that order fully. What followed was a landmark ruling that nullified the August 8 re-election of Uhuru. A repeat election was ordered within 60 days.

A few days to the October 26 repeat poll, Mr Chebukati confessed during a press conference that he could not guarantee a credible, free and fair election. He said most of the proposals he made were voted out by the majority of his commissioners at the plenary. Nevertheless, he went ahead with the exercise.

Our electoral history is thus a clear manifestation that the problem is not necessarily an issue with the ‘loser gets nothing’ scenario. Rather, it is a systematic failure, intentional or otherwise, by those charged with the responsibility of conducting elections.

Christian faith

Jesus Christ the Son of Man, on whom the Christian faith is founded, was known as a man who stood for the truth. He spoke without fear or favour on what we could also call "illegalities and irregularities" by the religious leaders of that time.

In Matthew 23, it is documented how he castigated the Pharisees for teaching the law with emphasis on payment of tithes but failing to practice the weightier parts of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness to God.

In my view, the Church is proposing the lighter solutions to these electoral injustices while avoiding the pertinent issues that affect our electoral management. The creation of more positions in Government will only serve to further sag the wage bill that is already burdening the taxpayer.

We need to nurture a culture of fair win and fair loss in our elections and in this regard, the Church would do a greater service to this country if they spearheaded discussions that progress the efforts of electoral transparency and integrity.

Patrick Marenya is a Communication Consultant

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