Opportunities NASA missed to redeem itself after poll nullification

Donald Trump’s win in the November 2016 American elections shook the world like a thunderbolt.

Here was a man with the definition of hate plastered across his face. A misogynist, racist bully who was loved and hated in equal measure. It did not help matters that he was competing against a candidate billed as arguably the most experienced of all presidential candidates in the history of America.

Trump of course won the presidency, courtesy of the Electoral College, although he was beaten to the popular vote by at least three million votes by Hillary Clinton.

Jeering

The American campaigns and elections brought with them a myriad of invaluable lessons for politicians and students of politics the world over. I remember watching on TV a rally addressed by former President Barack Obama in the state of North Carolina towards the tail-end of the campaigns.

In this rally, every mention of the name Trump was met with boos from the Democrats, never mind that this was a deeply red (republican) state. Savouring the moment, Obama turned up his mojo and worked up the crowd even further. “Don’t boo, just vote,” he told them.

His point was simple. Booing would not stop Trump from taking over at the White House if those boos did not translate to votes for Hillary Clinton. He was right. In the end, most of her supporters did not turn out to vote, quashing the hopes of many that America would have its first female president.

If we are to draw parallels from the American elections with the events taking place in our homeland, we won’t fail to notice NASA’s missed opportunities in redefining democracy in Kenya and perhaps work up its supporters. From the word go, NASA’s approach to the repeat presidential polls was doomed to fail. It had just won a historic ruling that nullified President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win in the August 8 presidential polls. Yet they never looked the part, playing victim even to the ruling itself.

Rather than use that historic ruling to whip up emotions among its supporters to bring out the vote, its leaders went to them looking hopeless.

Missed chance

Leaders are supposed to be strong people, not hopeless in front of their supporters. It then set out on a path to prevent the elections from taking place. First, it demanded the sacking of senior IEBC officials. Then it turned its sights on the commission’s service providers, the likes of Al Ghurair, OT Morpho and Safaricom. Then it called for nationwide street protests to push its agenda, its list of irreducible minimums.

Protests do not win elections. Votes do. And you need to hunt for them. NASA did not, it chose street protests and endless press conferences in its offices in Nairobi to complain over this today and that tomorrow. Now, it has withdrawn its candidature from the repeat polls.

At the end of it all, the Opposition has achieved none of its demands. All these are failures of epic proportions. What NASA failed to realise is that the Supreme Court verdict was supposed to make their case stronger. That, as per September 1, the day the Supreme Court delivered its verdict, it had an edge over Jubilee in the race for State House. And it let that advantage slip through its hands. Jubilee soon overran it. Its strategists failed it, and have been leading it down the path to self-destruction ever since.

Miscalculation

Its selling point should have been to make its supporters angry to the point that they would all wake up on Election Day and troop to the polling stations. Its street protests would have had the same effect, but the manner they were organised meant they were turned into looting sprees instead, angering even moderates who would have been sympathetic to its cause.

And then that long-expected withdrawal from the race by its presidential candidate. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Now, all NASA can do is watch as Jubilee wins the election, just as it did on August 8. It may start plotting ways of reversing that win, but either way, it knows its goose is cooked. Kenya went to the polls yesterday without the NASA candidate, and life will go on as usual. All NASA can hope for now is to live to fight another day.

Mr Temba is a Communication Consultant