Uphill task ahead for Kenya’s election preparedness team

By TEE NGUGI

The formation of a multiagency team to oversee preparedness for next year’s elections in Kenya is a positive development. The team comprises the Judiciary, Interior Security ministry, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission , and National Cohesion and Integration Commission officials.

At a meeting a few days ago, members of the forum talked tough about actions they would take to ensure that the 2022 elections were conducted in an atmosphere devoid of hate speech, intimidation and violence. The Interior ministry promised to put more police officers on the ground.

The NCIC said it would take firm action against hate-mongers. The Judiciary promised to set up special courts in various hot spots to prosecute those involved in electoral violence. The IEBC threatened to bar politicians who incite violence or engage in other electoral malpractice from ever holding electoral office.

The concerns of the forum are not idle. Every election cycle in Kenya witnesses a frenzy of activities that can only be described as lunacy. Politicians with degrees don tribal war regalia and summon tribal gods of war. We, they warn, are not in Kenya by permission from anybody. No one, they thunder, should mistake our peaceful nature for cowardice. We contribute the most to Kenya’s wealth, some claim, and demand special consideration. Our tribe needs its own party, others cry.

Elders’ councils go on a marathon of anointing this or that tribal kingpin. Professionals suddenly remember allegiance to the tribe. Wealthy people, who have never done anything for their impoverished villages, open up their largesse to ensure son or daughter of the tribe is elected.

Opponents’ rallies are violently disrupted by hired goons. People of the “wrong” tribe are chased from their homes. Election officials are beaten up or killed. Women candidates are insulted in the most demeaning ways. Welcome to mayhem, er, elections in Kenya.

Measures proposed by the elections preparedness team are welcome, but I wonder coming a few months to polling day if they are a cure for our madness. Like everything else we do, these actions reflect a crisis management mentality. What we need is development of an elections culture. A culture of tolerance and respect. A culture characterised by civil debate, not insults. A culture that sees elections as only part of a much longer democratic and development journey, and not an end in itself.

To create this culture means consistent upholding of electoral laws. It means relentless prosecution of hate mongers.

These actions must take place throughout the election cycle and not just during an election. You cannot allow the thuggery we saw during the Matungu by-election earlier this year during next year’s elections.

Even after criminal behaviour, NCIC addresses the transgressors as honourable so-and-so. The media asks them polite questions. The public cheers them wildly. This obsequious behaviour only serves to legitimise a culture of electoral thuggery.

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator