Those at the helm of polls body bear heavy responsibility

Samuel Kivuitu, the then-Parklands parliamentary candidate, is carried shoulder high by his supporters, 1969. [File]

It is that season of madness again. The politicians have the money and they are mobilising. Soon their campaigns will reach a crescendo and every village will be awash with cash.

The politicians’ smiling faces and their empty promises, emblazoned on cheap lessos, T-shirts and caps, will be tenants on millions of hips, chests and heads.

The end of sanity and the beginning of fake news, loose alliances, backstabbing and fantasy, is loading now and will climax in August next year when over 19 million voters will have their little fingers marked with indelible ink as a symbol of their democratic and civic duty.

Nothing captures this season of abandon more aptly than this iconic picture of a smiling Samuel Kivuitu in 1969 after he had transited from interpreting the law as an advocate to becoming a lawmaker.

In the photo, he had just been elected as MP for Parklands and like a true servant of the people, he was being carried shoulder-high by supporters.

Kivuitu later made a name for himself when he offered to represent fellow MP Gideon Mutiso who was accused of plotting to overthrow Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s government in April 1971. Mutiso admitted to the charge of sedition and pleaded with the president for forgiveness. Nevertheless, he was jailed for nine years.

Samuel Kivuitu. [Courtesy]

Kivuitu would later lose the Parklands seat and try as he might, he could never muster the same charm to woo the voters into choosing him to be their man in Parliament.

Today, as Kenya hurtles towards the 2022 General Election, and an estimated 700 applicants are waiting to know whether they will be picked as commissioners for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Kivuitu’s name is likely to cross the minds of some.

Although he went to the Electoral Commission of Kenya after the 1997 General Election, Kivuitu will be remembered not because he oversaw the elections that uprooted Kanu after 39 years in power, or the peaceful 2005 referendum, but for presiding over polls that pushed the country to the brink of anarchy in 2007.

He was accused of turning a blind eye to election-rigging which led to hurried swearing in of Mwai Kibaki as president, decisions that sparked off clashes that left over 1,000 people dead and 250,000 others displaced from their homes.

It has been eight years since Kivuitu died of cancer but just like in his time, the electoral body that is supposed to superintend the next General Election is still mired in controversy.

Will Kenyans ever learn?