Every five years we not only vote for politicians but also vote for peace. Unfortunately, in almost every Kenyan election, peace has been elusive.
Instead, a pandemic of violence has often ensued, infecting even those who would not normally engage in violence. The fear of violence before, during and after elections is one we all live with.
During the electioneering period everything that unites us as Kenyans (our heritage, our collective unity through trade, sports, intermarriages, professional ties, educational ties, etc) is suddenly, and surprisingly, tossed aside.
Divisive politics should not separate us. The best response to political grievances, any grievance warranted or not, is to fight with our votes and not our fists. That’s the beauty of democracy, it is essentially why we vote: to fight by ballots, not by bullets.
More often than not, election violence is fuelled by politicians when they either use inflammatory rhetoric or fail to respond to election results peacefully.
Inflammatory rhetoric usually manifests itself through the instrumentalisation of grievances (ethnic, class, etc) and the sowing of distrust in institutions: IEBC, the police, the courts, and the GoK.
Failure to peacefully concede defeat is often tinged with either the demonisation of a politician's opponent or the opponent’s supporters or both.
Inflammatory rhetoric and failure to peacefully concede defeat are fertile ground for stirring-up ethnic animosity, distrust of institutions and unrest.
The clearest path to a peaceful presidential election is to understand that some politicians will attempt to sow discord among us by using incendiary rhetoric.
Our role as voters is to discern not only facts from fiction in political speech but also to punish politicians who pose a danger to our peace by either voting them out or not voting them in.
If they divide us, they don’t deserve us, we don’t deserve them, and they don’t deserve our votes.
Another road to peace is for politicians to normalise accepting defeat. If politicians cannot accept defeat, they should seek legal redress to contest an election result.
The battle should be a court battle not a battle royale between citizens. Not bloodshed, hatred and rigging. Another beauty of democracy is that the courts exist to peacefully and impartially fight for every Kenyan, including politicians who feel they lost unfairly.
Ultimately, there rarely is a Usain Bolt in politics, politics is not a sprint contest, politics is a marathon. It took former president Mwai Kibaki a decade to become president (he ran unsuccessfully in 1992 and 1997).
It took a decade for President Uhuru Kenyatta to become Kenya’s 001, having run unsuccessfully in 2002. And far from home, America’s Joe Biden ran unsuccessfully in 1988 and 2008, and roughly 32 years later, in 2020, he eventually became POTUS.
The past Kenyan presidential elections have teemed with contested results, often leading to post-election violence. Maybe, this time, all things kept constant, for the sake of keeping the peace, whoever loses the election should live to fight another day.
Election violence has won for a very long time. This August, we need to have elections bila noma. We need to grant peace a victory.
Student of political science at Bard College Berlin.
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