Kenya is not a peer; let’s face it!

By Festo Mulinda

On August 15th, Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Committee (IEBC) announced the results of the presidential election. Unlike neighbors and supposed peers, the man, with the support of the sitting president, lost! Just like that! William Samoei Ruto, the self-proclaimed hustler had beaten the veteran opposition politician Raila Amolo Odinga in the latter’s record fifth run.

For those of us who grew up in the 1990s, three powerhouse names stood up as we picked role models: Kofi Annan (UN), Salim Ahmed Salim (OAU) and, of course, Raila Odinga. As Africa reluctantly tried to accommodate multiparty democracy, Kenya had Mr. Odinga at the tip of the movement. He has opposed governments almost his entire life, making many sacrifices that come with exposing an African government.

At 77, he gave it his last bow, hoping to turn the tables against a much younger, eloquent and almost equally influential William Ruto. This time however, Odinga was endorsed by the incumbent, President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Many with the African politics mindset believed Mr. Odinga had to win, because, you know, he had the state behind him. Opinion polls were consistently in favor of Mr. Odinga, but the IEBC chief, Mr. Wafula Chebukati, felt he had to declare what he saw as true results. Explain this to any other East African, and they won’t get it. The democracy in Kenya has proven too mature to belong to the region. Kenya is not a peer in this!

During the initial stages and throughout campaigns, there were calls for free and fair elections, like in all elections in the world. Because we hear the same from neighboring countries all the time, we didn’t know how they would go about it. However, IEBC had a plan; a transparent process that would see results forms uploaded on its website for everyone to see. This means a random citizen could do the tallying to confirm what the committee announced on live television. So, if one had to rig, then they had better do it before the forms were scanned and uploaded. Despite some weaknesses with the system, in some instances, this was a masterstroke that no East African country could envisage.

Although Kenya has pretty much been a step ahead in many things, their democracy stands out in East Africa. In 2002, the late Mwai Kibaki won an election against all odds. He was representing a coalition of opposition parties, and defeated Uhuru Kenyatta, a son to the nation’s first President who also enjoyed the luxury of support from the then incumbent president, the late Daniel Arap Moi. This huge step was reversed in 2007 when thousands died in post-election violence. Like a smart child willing to learn, Kenya has learnt an important lesson, and moved on.

Fast forward in 2022, the entire election process was relatively cool, the people waited for results calmly until that final announcement on the 15th of August, 2022. Such a journey of lessons can only be undertaken by the courageous and smart society. For this, I dare say Kenya is way ahead of peers.

The learning process that Kenya undertook was a complex one. It started with a constitution overhaul that gave birth to an independent electoral committee. If you take the trouble and look around, you will find out that the only country that comes close as a democracy, Tanzania, was the one pointed out by the Nairobi pundits when trying to highlight what a weak committee looks like.

I bring Tanzania into the conversation because at least it changes faces of the occupants of the state house. However, the Electoral Committee in Tanzania is determined by leaders of the ruling party. The Chairperson is a presidential appointee; so, when the president is running for a second term, his/her appointee is expected to be unbiased! And, of course, if you lose the election and you are not satisfied with the process, you cannot challenge the results in court. Again, that is a horrible prospect for any candidate trying their luck. The rest of the members of the East African community don’t even bother changing faces; it’s more complicated. Again, Kenya is different!

As I write, Mr. Raila Odinga has submitted his petition against the outcome of the general election. He believes there was some sort of rigging that influenced the outcome. In Kenya, that’s fine, it’s his right. He did the same in 2017 and successfully forced a re-run. His competitor, now president elect, William Ruto is allowing law to prevail. Remember he is the deputy president of the outgoing government, he could have decided to use resources available to him to cause some drama, but he won’t, at least to this day.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has equally remained calm, avoiding a change of narrative or any influence to the fair, democratic process. He knows the judiciary has its own power, and he can’t change it. That sounds so pure, so perfect, so alien!

Whatever happens after court hearing does not really matter. Kenya has shown a way, and neighbors should just get out of their comfort zones, take this adventure and give their people a taste of true democracy.