Sham electoral processes have contributed to our economic woes and mediocre leaders

Voters queue to cast their ballots in the General Election on August 8, 2017. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

A society begets the leaders it deserves. In His sovereign nature, the creator of the universe elevated human beings above all other species. For those that believe in the teachings of the scriptures, we are told humans were created in the Lord’s image. Our major distinguishing feature is our brain. Unlike other species, we were given the ability to make choices.

But this privilege comes with the burden of responsibility and accountability. As somebody once quipped, choices have consequences. Nothing demonstrates this more than our current predicament of our socio-economic welfare and calibre of political leadership. Unfortunately, we have no one to blame except ourselves. We are responsible for our errors of commission and omission at the ballot.

Our Constitution gives us the chance to choose leaders every five years through universal suffrage. While the Constitution guarantees this right, we have traded it for our love for freebies. I have consistently argued on these pages that our culture of free things goes against all basic principles of economics.

In recent weeks, hordes of respectable gentlemen and women, and the hoi polloi alike, have been trooping to otherwise exclusive golden mansions in the name of exercising their democracy. Your guess is as good as mine on what happens behind those closed gates before the media cameras zoom in.

In other cases, we are witnesses to ‘waheshimiwa’ competing to see who can better chew ‘mahindi choma’ on the streets. The joke has been extended to serving tea and mandazi in roadside kiosks and taking selfies while at it. For millions of us, this is our world and lot. To a visitor in the country, they may be flabbergasted at what servant-leadership we have in this part of the Sahara. Except if this was not the year of judgement for the waheshimiwa.

Behavioural science teaches us that to fix defective habits in society, we must start with acknowledging the problem. Studies demonstrate that voter bribery to influence electoral outcomes is not only a widespread phenomenon but also deeply entrenched and practiced across all competitive political positions. This comes in many forms, including but not limited to dishing out cash, distributing foodstuffs and clothing, donations to harambees for campaigns, and paying school fees for political ends, among others.

But before I take the moral high ground, please allow me to make one confession. Many years ago, in 1983 or 1985, I joined a long queue and received one mandazi from a candidate for Member of Parliament. That was the era of mlolongo voting system. I joined the line for two main reasons: one, all ‘watoto wa nyayo’ were receiving a mandazi that day; and two, I loved mandazis then, as I do to date.

Mlolongo system; voters queue to cast their ballots, Karen, 1988. [File, Standard]

If it was meant to influence a political outcome, I do not know and God is my witness. I have never tasted any other political goodies except ‘mwolyo’ (relief food in my Kamba ethnic language). On this second account, it was beyond my control. Those choices were purely my parents’. Mine was to eat whatever was put on the dinner table for practical survival reasons.

Otherwise, how would I have survived the claws of famine and hunger that frequently ravaged our villages in the 1980s and 1990s? I guess I had to survive to be able to speak of these evils in our society today. Say nature preserving one in her divine order. Ever since I attained the right to cast a ballot, I have never tasted any political candidate’s money nor received any handout, at least not with my knowledge. This coming election shall be my silver jubilee. Let us now turn to the evidence.

In an opinion article, Ameli Inyangu, an advocate, chronicles the widespread voter bribery in every election cycle despite it being a criminal offense under the Constitution and the Election Offences Act. Both the candidates and voters are equally guilt of this offense. A survey of 10 counties done by Konrad Adenauer Foundation in partnership with the Centre for Multi-party Democracy–Kenya in December 2016, confirms that bribery influences how people vote.

According to the study, the causes of voter bribery are high poverty levels, low income- especially among the youth-weak enforcement of laws, and precedence from previous elections. Out of the 600 respondents interviewed and sampled, 56 per cent confessed to having received a bribe to vote in a particular way, while 44 per cent had never accepted a bribe from an aspirant.

Turning to the aspirants, only 24 per cent confessed to giving a bribe while 76 per cent said they had not. This was probably to protect themselves from legal consequences. The troubling part of the survey was that majority of voters believe it is not their responsibility to refuse to take a bribe. This affirms the reality of a society struggling with values, morals and ethics.

Another study by the Centre for the Future State, The Politics of Poverty: Elites, Citizens and States, Governance and Fragile States 2001-2010, sponsored by the Department for International Development, concludes that political decisions shape whether development goals are achieved or not, if a nation raises revenues to fund investments, and if growth occurs. Further, economic, political and social inequalities are more likely to lead communities into wars.

A man assists a schoolgirl who inhaled teargas during a protest in Kawangware, Nairobi. [AFP]

First, whether we accept it or not, it is a statistical improbability to get credible and authentic leaders from a corrupt process. Political contests are first and foremost a game of numbers and interests. As the electorate, it is our sovereign obligation to zealously guard our interest at the ballot by choosing the right leaders. Once we trade our socio-economic interests for a pittance during elections, two thing happen: one, we lose the moral authority to hold elected officials to account; two, we create a vacuum that evil men and women exploit to control and/or determine electoral outcomes. We call then cartels or the deep state.

Second, entrenched fraud in elections creates huge barriers to entry. Similar to the business world, when an industry wants to protect monopolistic practices and enjoy the attendant huge profits, it creates barriers to entry to minimise competition. This has led us to a state where ethical men and women, and credible professionals, find it costly, both in character ideals and financially, to fairly compete in elections. The outcome is that our options at the ballot have been narrowed down to a choice of the lesser evil. Either way, we screwed up.

Third, over time, this behavior becomes accepted as the norm, a standard and a way of life in society. It gets perpetuated across every trade and ordinary chores. At that point, a society dies inside while it purports to live in the physical world. Tragically, this is where we find ourselves as a nation.

As a concluding thought, economic history instructs us that even a single remnant from a rotten community can restore the soul of a nation. The question is: Do we have any left in our midst? Can they stand up for their country and for the sake of our children’s generation at this critical juncture in our history? Over to you, my dear reader.