New IIEC is bad news for despots

The approval by Parliament of the list of members of the new Interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya marks the beginning of the end of despotism in Kenya. President Mwai Kibaki has little choice but approve the list which is composed of people of proven honesty and integrity who will, hopefully, make sure that future elections and referenda will be conducted in a free and fair manner. The approval of the list also marks the beginning of a long road towards the reforms stipulated in Agenda Four and both the Waki and Kriegler reports.

All the despots who have misruled Kenya for so long have been put in power by sham elections which were rigged through gerrymandering and deliberate mismanagement of the electoral process. Jomo Kenyatta, for example, never tolerated anyone to oppose him in a free and fair election. Strictly speaking the only elections he truly won were the last ones to be organized by the colonialists in 1963. He won as a Kanu candidate against Kadu which was the only other mass political party in the country.

The real first Presidential elections in Kenya took place in 1969 when Jomo Kenyatta was already a despot after making several constitutional changes to make it absolutely impossible for any opposition against him to be tolerated. Among these amendments was the Preservation of Public Security Act of 1966, which provided for the declaration of a state of emergency and for detention without trial.

This law made people to be extremely scared of the Government in general and the President in particular. No one dared to even dream of opposing the good old Jomo in any election be they party, parliamentary or presidential. The behaviour of people like John Michuki when he ordered the invasion of The Standard newspapers clearly proves that there are people in Kibaki’s Government who wish such obnoxious laws still existed in the country. Such people obviously will spend sleepless nights knowing Kenya now is about to have truly free and fair elections organized by the new IIEC. Because Kenyatta had already been declared a life president of Kanu which was the only De Facto political party in Kenya there was also no one to oppose him in the 1974 general elections.

If Kenyatta introduced dictatorial policies that made free and fair election almost impossible under his rule, President Daniel arap Moi, who succeed him, perfected those policies. In 1983 the country saw the first general elections conducted in a De Jure one party atmosphere. This was to be followed by the most notorious Mlolongo elections of 1988. These are all reasons why Kenyans should wholeheartedly welcome the new list of members of the IIEC. This is particularly so because both the disciples of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi still hold very powerful positions in the current Government and sometimes they show clear indications that they are unable to resist the temptation to emulate the first and second presidents of Kenya.

The challenges facing the new IIEC are many but among the most important concerns the updating the voter register. This, together with gerrymandering, has always been used by the despots of Kenya to make sure they were returned to the seat of power, election after election. Millions of Kenyans were disenfranchised as ethnic nationalism was encouraged through the registration of voters. In the last elections no less than a million dead people were supposed to have voted while millions of living ones were denied their constitutional right to elect their representatives in the Legislature. The new team must come up with a genuine voter register that will go a long way to legitimize elections in this country.

One of the biggest challenges facing the new IIEC will be how the new team will get involved in organizing and supervising the primary elections in this country. Without free and fair elections in political parties in Kenya we can never hope to have true democracy that will establish “a government of the people by the people and for the people”. The country desperately needs to have proper democracy in political parties that will ensure free and fair nomination process. Today all political parties are properties of powerful leaders in the country.

PNU belongs to Mwai Kibaki, ODM-K is the property of Kalonzo Musyoka and ODM is in the pocket of Raila Odinga. No one can hope to be nominated in anyone of these major parties without the approval of the political giants named above. Some legal steps may need to be taken to give the new IIEC enough powers to organize party elections including nominations for general elections. No efforts should be spared to take those measures. After all we are now being guided by principles of honesty and transparency. Party elections must also be transparent.

If political leaders in Kenya claim to be heading popular political parties then they must allow the people to participate in the organization and internal elections of those political parties. Unless the people participate in these vital electoral processes we cannot claim to have free and fair elections. The Kriegler report says an examination of political parties in Kenya (as at 30 June 2008) revealed that they were, as currently constituted, incapable of providing democratic space to their membership.

By and large, the report says, they are characterized by lack of transparency in choosing leaders. Elections for office- bearers are rarely held or when held are cosmetic and therefore undemocratic. As a result, leadership is often arbitrary, autocratic and unaccountable. According to the report, parties are also dogged by flawed and poor party nomination rules and processes. The leadership interferes with party electoral processes, especially in nominating candidates for elective positions.

This will probably be the most difficult challenge to face the IIEC because the culprits are the same powerful people in our country pretending to aspire for reforms. I am deliberately using the word “pretending” because none of our political leaders today is prepared to introduce democracy in the political party they own. Yet without internal democracy in political parties we might as well forget ever having free and fair elections in Kenya.