We can get leaders without casting votes

A voter casts his vote at Milimani Primary School in Nakuru during the London ward By-election on March 4, 2021. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Must we vote? Come to think of it, what difference does it actually make if we recruited legislators just like we do with other public servants?

The violence witnessed during the just concluded by-elections in parts of the country left me wondering whether we actually can justify why we vote in the first place.

Theoretically, we are aware that a core component of civic duty and responsibility is to vote. We know that in a democracy, people choose their leaders through the ballot. We also know elected leaders carry the wish list of their constituencies to the assemblies.

They represent voters on the floor of Parliament, the county assemblies and in that coveted office called State House. So, we are somewhat persuaded that voting is a noble patriotic exercise to conduct often.

In Kenya, almost every election is a precursor for violence leading to people sustaining injuries, getting internally displaced and losing lives. In addition, because of the way the voting process is generally tampered with, people drag each other to courts of law for endless litigations.

It is worth asking whether we must vote to have people represent us in those houses of power. There are two ways we can respond to this. On first thought, we actually don’t have to vote. We can simply recruit people through a reformed agency like the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

The outcome of an election is to have someone in office with powers to debate, influence and support laws and policies that enable continued and improved government service delivery. Voting results in such a person assuming office. A competitive recruitment process will equally result in someone assuming office.

Of great significance is what the person in office does. Whether one manipulates their way to office or genuinely gets to office through a transparent process, the job description is exactly the same.

Similarly, whether one is more popular than another but both emerge winners from their respective places, the job description is exactly the same.

That one governor is elected by 500,000 voters while another by 200,000 voters doesn’t change their job descriptions. Both have the legitimacy to govern. Hence, we can remind ourselves that how one legitimately gets to office may be secondary to what they must do. The governor who has more votes could be a poorer performer than the one who is also elected but with fewer votes.

So, what if we actually recruited the governors who front themselves? Will their performance once in office be any different from if elected? On the other hand, we could vote indeed.

But the justifications for this are extremely weak if we go by the violent way we run our elections; from the primaries to the main election. We need that national “feel good effect” that we are a “democracy”. We want to stand alongside other countries that vote to speak the same democracy language.

At the individual level, the whole electoral process is a profit making business, especially for those seeking to be elected. Besides, it helps build commercial and political alliances.

At a social level, it builds buddy clubs of similar mind at work, leisure places or wherever common interest unites fellas. Now, will the justification of voting stand if we dealt with violence and the manipulation of the system so that every vote accounts? To a large extent, yes.

Valid conclusion

Unfortunately, since the 1990s, experience shows that we have lost lives; we have people who are physically and emotionally impaired because of electoral violence. We also have contested outcomes right from MCAs to presidency that have left many people hurt and will probably never recover.  

There is danger of evidently drawing a conclusion that we are incapable of getting ourselves out of the cycle of violence, yet this is the only valid conclusion that we must live with at the moment.

What then do we lose if we don’t vote? Violence and propagandists ascending to power. Moreover, democracy is not the only form of governance. I will panel beat the Ubuntu philosophy into some form of governance paradigm and govern with it.

For now, the question remains unanswered: Must we vote? My honest opinion is that I don’t have sustainable ground to compel a yes. I will be happy to be educated on this matter by any Kenyan or partner who has superior arguments. It is not clear why we must vote.

-Dr Mokua is the Executive Director of Loyola Centre for Media and Communication