Electoral code has become a comic book

Murang'a women Rep Sabina Chege, when she appeared before the IEBC's Electoral Code of Conduct Enforcement Committee, on February 15, 2022, over utterances regarding the 2017 presidential election results. [Edward Kiplimo,Standard]

A telecoms mogul was once criticised and called names for saying Kenyans have peculiar habits.

The remark may have been ‘taken out of context’ but I gather he was alluding to our impulsive nature when making important decisions. We are ever up the creek with lots of peculiar habits. In this past week, Wafula Chebukati and his Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) best typified our peculiarity.

I have always likened Mr Chebukati to American actor Sandra Bullock who made headlines when she was crowned best actress at the Oscars in 2010, just a day after receiving the Golden Raspberry for being the worst actress in ‘All about Steve’. It was a mishmash of feats never seen.

When he battled criticism over the pathetic 2017 General Election, Chebukati came out fighting and declared his determination “to make this commission work”. But now, the polls referee appears to be grabbing at flimsy reeds ahead of August 9 polls date.  

The frenzy by the agency over utterances by Woman Rep Sabina Chege touching on the 2017 elections was beyond belief. The reason for Chege’s summoning and ‘charging’ was that her remarks overtly flouted the law, specifically the Electoral Code of Conduct.

Chebukati says persons bound by the code are obliged to re-assure voters of impartiality of the commission and secrecy of the ballot. But what impartiality or values are we talking about in a county that’s a paradise of electoral impunity? A country where results-relaying devices are made to fail, the electoral commission seals off servers and sits on all important poll data!

Last Tuesday’s electoral code enforcement committee session presided over by Chebukati at which a decision was made to escalate Chege’s ‘trial’ was a needless distraction. In my view, to summon aspirants over every stroppy claim in rallies amounts to fighting ghosts. I would worry more about outright incitement and hate speech, but not mere flaks by politicians.

IEBC should focus on poll preparations — inside out. Its valuable time and resources need to go towards securing the sanctity of the vote. It will be judged by the credibility of the poll, not how many panels it convened to adjudge supposedly reckless statements. Forget Chege and her ilk.

Moreover, the tragedy of the 2017 election that Chege touched on is an open secret. The Supreme Court pronounced itself on it on September 1, 2017. Parties also rigged out many popular aspirants in primaries. And as the late politician Jean Marie Seroney would say, sometimes there’s no need to substantiate the obvious.

Chebukati loves blowing hot and cold on the last election. After saying on October 17, 2017 that he could not guarantee the credibility of the October 26 repeat elections, he sprang up in September 2018 to announce at a post-election evaluation that he was happy with the conduct of the polls.

I am yet to see the IEBC team publicly prove they have learned pivotal lessons from 2017. Let the agency engage in serious make-believe acts to assure us it’s equal to the task. We need to see the confidence in Chebukati’s face. We could deny it but we all understand where Chege is coming from. The past can inform the future.

The writer is an editor at The Standard. Twitter: @markoloo