NASA should focus on winning rather than scuttling the elections

Just weeks to the repeat presidential election rescheduled for October 26, we are still uncertain about how the election will unfold. While Jubilee has gone back to the campaign trail in search for votes, NASA is adamant that there will be no election unless their list of demands is attended to. The IEBC, faced with a herculean task of delivering an almost perfect election has gone back to the drawing board to improve their processes. To their credit, they have made tremendous effort to meet with both sides of the political divide often without much success.

NASA has called for street demonstrations against IEBC which they say they do not have confidence in to conduct a free and fair election. Part of their demands is for CEO, Ezra Chiloba, to resign or be fired. The man has refused to leave and his Chairman has given no indication that he plans to fire him. Mr Chiloba’s statement this week that the court relied on ‘fake documents’ to nullify the election indicate that the man will not go down without a fight.

NASA is also protesting, at home and broad, the ongoing effort by the National Assembly to make changes to the electoral laws ostensibly to seal the gaps that were noted in the nullified August 8th election. They have accused Jubilee of changing the rules in the middle of the game, which they argue is unfair. Each side is sticking to their guns and that is how it will remain into the foreseeable future.

Be that as it may, I find the NASA campaign to frustrate the repeat election dishonest and disingenuous and amounting to an attempt to change the rules of the game in the middle of the game. Ours is an electoral democracy based on universal suffrage, where the decision of who will lead us is based on the election by the majority of the voters. Their intention to stop Kenyans from voting on October 26, within the timelines granted by the Supreme Court, runs contrary to this basic understanding.

It is not conceivably fair to anyone that a competitor in an election can dictate if an election will be held, and if so, how it will be and who will conduct it. We have established institutions and laws to handle any issues and that is what we should follow. Not changing the goal posts at every turn.

It will be a bad precedent for the country if we allow hecklers to win just because they shout the loudest. Our accepted way of winning is by winning the support of the most voters and our way of changing laws is through Parliament. Also, it is a bad precedent to just fire people from their jobs because we don’t like them. To do so, is worse that returning to the dark days we keep being cautioned against. It is to return to the state of nature – the rule of the jungle.

It is fair for NASA to insist that the electoral process be free and fair. However, A free and fair election is desired by all Kenyans and is not, in fact, just about addressing demands of any particular actor but actually as stipulated in the law. This is the responsibility of the IEBC which has been very clearly repeated by the courts.

Perhaps, one of the things that NASA might want to consider is that elections can be won without rigging. There is no doubt that our elections have historically suffered credibility gaps but we also know that elections can never be perfect even if we disbanded the electoral commission like we did with the now defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK).

What we know though is that the opposition can win victories by mobilising massive numbers of supporters even if the playing field is unfair. The 2002 electoral victory by Narc and the 2005 referendum victory by Orange are illustrative examples. The lesson here: if you have the numbers you need for victory, the election does not have to be perfect for you to win. Perhaps this is what NASA should be focusing on. Anything else is self-defeatist and destructive.

- The writer is a researcher and analyst in Nairobi.

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