The ritual of voting amid the crisis of belief among voters

Ballot boxes at Ruaraka constituency tallying centre, Stima Club, Nairobi, on August 11, 2022. [File, Standard]

Democracy does not die only when ballots are stolen. It dies when citizens stop believing that ballots matter. The deeper crisis is not always fraud itself, but the steady erosion of trust in the processes that produce power.

Elections become rituals without conviction, participation without faith. Kenya now stands dangerously close to that line. Since the return of multiparty politics in 1992, every major election has carried the shadow of dispute.