Dissapointing Kenyan Elections

Many Kenyans today are still reeling from the shock and profound dissapointment with the recently concluded elections. There is a sense of great frustration with the way the election outcomes were handled. Now the country is truly at a crossroad seeking the way forward as it tries to pull itself from the brink of total collapse. The writer below sums quite well the feelings of many Kenyans and that is the need for new elections!


We want fresh election and an end to impunity
Published on January 7, 2008, 12:00 am

By Ashish Shah

Over eight million Kenyans turned out in their highest numbers ever to vote on December 27. Whichever side of the political divide you sit on, a little over one week later, you are still being reminded why we all came out to vote.
We came out to vote because we are tired, angry and frustrated with the political patronage and impunity that pervades our beautiful nation, and we wanted to use our precious vote to make our concerns known. Little did we expect that it would be the same impunity and patronage that had spread like cancer into our own electoral commission.
Our votes have been manipulated because of impunity and patronage.
I have lost all faith in the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK). I cannot accept having ECK commissioners come out now, after they made decisions based on impunity and patronage, to call for an independent investigation.
Impunity and patronage allow for ECK commissioners to continue to sit in office despite presiding over gross irregularities. They allow politicians to suggest that we use the courts to resolve the crises when we know that our courts continue to be under the influence of that same impunity and patronage.
Impunity and patronage allow for a President to be sworn in without citizens of a nation celebrating. Impunity and patronage allow for brazen attempts to silence the media. They allow for a media house to be raided in full glare of cameras.
There is no shortcut to our future. We have lost faith in all our governing institutions and we cannot rely on them to resolve this impasse. I cannot allow for independent people to re-tally votes already manipulated by the ECK. I cannot trust courts to solve this impasse.
There are only two things I can trust: One is the power of the people to cast their vote under the supervision of an impartial and independent and perhaps foreign electoral institution so that people are given the opportunity to regain control of the destiny of this nation with non-violent means. In the absence of non-violent means which are in the control of citizens to vent their frustrations and opinions, both sides of the political divide will only contribute to escalating violence, peacelessness.
Worse still, what we are seeing in Kenya is a greater consolidation of power resulting in more patronage and more impunity, the very things more than eight million Kenyans came out to vote for and change.
Supporters for both sides of the political divide voted for radical change. That is why over 16 Cabinet ministers were felled. That is why we all turned out in such large numbers.
We must allow Kenyans to vent their frustration and their desire for a better country through the ballot box yet again if we want to prevent citizens from venting their frustration through violence in the streets.
But beyond a fresh presidential election, we must use the current impasse to redirect all out energies into revolutionising our Constitution, because it is our Constitution that continues to allow impunity and patronage to go unchecked and unabated. This impasse provides for an opportunity for all of us to focus our energy on the real issue — delivering a Constitution that will prevent against impunity and patronage.
The real issue is not about who comes to power. The real issue is that we are tired of those who exercise power given to them with impunity and patronage. We are tired of personality-based politics.
Without a new constitution, we will continue to hope for benevolent leadership. This is a risk I am no longer prepared to take. As we have seen over the last five years, even the most benevolent of leaders can preside over impunity and patronage.
Do not waste this impasse in violence against your fellow brothers and sisters. Use this impasse to rid Kenya of impunity and patronage by calls for fresh and independent elections and immediate constitutional reform that places power back into the hands of millions of voters, and away from the political elite.
The writer is an economic and social policy consultant.

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