What Kenya could learn from Zambia polls

Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema casts his ballot at the Kabulonga Boys Secondary School polling station in Lusaka on August 13, 2026. [AFP]

Elections do not end when a winner is announced. In many ways, that is when democracy faces its most important test: what happens when the losing side disputes the result and asks State institutions to prove that the process was credible? That is the question Zambia is confronting after its August 13 election, and it is one Kenya should be asking before 2027.

President-elect Hakainde Hichilema has been declared the winner with 60.49 per cent of valid votes, against Brian Mundubile's 37.87 per cent. Hichilema was sworn in on September 1, but the post-election dispute remains part of the political conversation.