Why Ethekon and IEBC must get it right in the 2027 elections

IEBC chairman Erastus Ethekon addresses the Press after a meeting with Evangelical Alliance of Kenya in Nairobi on February 4, 2026. [Benard Orwongo, Standard

Pressure is piling on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) —to go beyond reassurances of ‘commitment’ to conduct free, fair and credible elections in August next year. History shows that in democracies, including weak, nascent ones such as ours, the hopes and aspirations—but also fears—of the people are periodically pushed to the foreground of public discourse by an upcoming election. And the palaver around election-given change and stability is neither misplaced nor unique to Kenya. All the nations of the world that claim some form or other of flirtation with electoral practice do, at some point, register an outlook roller coaster.