When the IEBC is reconstituted, we will yet again have a new elections management body.
Who shall serve in the new IEBC is not known yet. However, regardless of who that would be, there are for sure seven Kenyans of integrity who can serve in this important institution and execute their duties and responsibilities with the honor and integrity the Constitution calls for.
That has been true on every occasion during the reconstitution or overhauling of the electoral commission, which has existed in some reincarnation since the Electoral Commission of Kenya that found home in Section 41 of the old constitution.
By “that has been true,” I mean there have always been men and women of integrity who could meet and surpass the constitutional requirement for commissioners to independently and impartially execute their duties and responsibilities while delivering credible elections.
The million-dollar question is, have they?
Have all the members of ECK, the Interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya, and the IEBC served with honor and integrity to deliver credible, open and transparent elections?
Note the key word in this question is “all,” because the Constitution does not envision a situation where some but not all of the members of these commissions to conduct credible elections. Rather, given the nature of the responsibilities of an elections management body and how at the core of any democracy those responsibilities are, all the members are required to act in unison.
Dissent, whether real or feigned, is not an option in conducting elections within the parameters provided for by the Constitution. Real dissent after the fact is even worse than feigned defense at any time.
It is worth noting that the Constitution does not require delivery of a perfect election.
Rather, it mandates delivery of election outcome managed by independent and impartial commissioners and staff. Inherent in that high but not the highest constitutional requirement is a conviction informed by common sense among the drafters that there shall never be a perfect election, not in Kenya, not in any other country.
If in doubt, check with any serious candidate who has lost an election but don’t ask the one term, former President Donald Trump because that is not what we are talking about here.
There are candidates who lose fair and squarely but forever complain of having been rigged when that was not the case. Again, a good example of that is Trump. But of course, there are many others who, in fact, have won but have been rigged out and that phenomenon is as old as democracy itself.
I have previously said that President William Ruto may surprise everyone and become the one who takes on corruption head-on and rids the country of it, or at least returns it to previously manageable low levels than where it is now.
It may also be the case that Ruto will be the one who shepherds the selection of IEBC chairman and commissioners who deliver elections results in 2027 that most Kenyans will be proud of no different than we were in 2002.
Indeed, this is more likely the case because the President has demonstrated that he is not only a student of our political history, but also knows how to do the delicate dance for the good of self and country as he did in outsmarting the powers that be and won in 2022.
We can only route for his success in every move and direction he takes the country.
