The murder of IEBC ICT manager Chris Msando on Saturday morning last week was a murder most foul.
Chris had reported to the police that he feared for his life. Our intelligence services are professional enough to take up such concerns, and make proper arrangements to avert disaster. Chris was no ordinary man: He was the key cog in the IEBC delivering a credible election to Kenyans on Tuesday. Let us trace our steps backwards and see why somebody or some people within the "powers that be" would have been interested in eliminating Chris.
Readers will remember that it was not too long ago that Parliament battled with changes in the election laws that put aside, among other things, the strict electronic system of allowing an individual to vote, only if he presents himself at the polling station and identified by his fingerprints. That amendment to the law, proposed by the Jubilee government, was strongly opposed by opposition MPs and senators.
But since Jubilee enjoys the Tyranny of Numbers in Parliament, they pushed through this amendment. The wording looked simple but dangerous. It simply said that the IEBC could use the "manual system" rather than "electronic or digital system" for voter identification and voting, "in case the electronic system fails".
Our response was that this amendment was not really necessary. At the polling station, biometric voter identification devices are powered by batteries, which ought to be fully charged before voting starts. Since the number of hours they can serve after being fully charged are known, back up devices can be made available when needed. Moreover, power banks are now easily available in the market and can be used as part of the back up system.
When all is said and done, we lost the battle and the provision that a manual system can now be used: This is now the reality. We have to put up with it with all its dangers. Fortunately, Chris in his capacity as the ICT manager, set out to eliminate all possible loopholes that any mischievous person could use to rig the election with or without the electronic voter identification devices.
That Friday morning and evening, he demonstrated this on TV in a language that an ordinary Kenyan could understand. He was a thorough professional. The night that followed those TV interviews is when he was abducted, tortured and brutally murdered. The key issue in the kind of work he did is how to get access into the computer system that runs the process of protecting the votes cast from fraud. This key "entry point" is what is called "the password." Perhaps somebody wanted the password that Chris used so as "to hack the IEBC system" but Chris refused to give it.
He was ready to die to protect the integrity of the electoral process and his integrity as a professional. That, I think, would be the first hypothesis that the famous English detective, Sherlock Homes, would use in trying to unveil the mystery behind this murder. May his soul rest in eternal peace.
It is now the duty of the government to undertake proper investigations to reveal, as soon as possible, "who murdered Chris and why”. From past experiences, however, Kenyans are rather apprehensive whether anything would come out of such investigations. The first cause of this apprehension was when it took the President and Deputy President more than a day to say anything about the murder. He was a key player in the management of this crucial election and being murdered just days to the polls, the President, Deputy President and the famous State House spokesman shouldn’t have taken their sweet time to respond.
Honestly, Kenyans are bound to ask questions; and we did. It was only after the opposition leaders challenged the President to make his stand known on Tuesday that he did finally talked. But the usual chorus that always follows from the government side of being " fully in agreement and support with His Excellency" have been rather scarce.
Having said that, let me reiterate that what is important now is to vote and guard the vote. On its part, the IEBC must not let Kenyans down. The opinion polls show the race between the two leading presidential candidates is very tight. Every voter must be given a chance to vote freely, his or her vote counted transparently, then collated correctly and the results announced honestly. If all these stages in the electoral process are not undertaken in a thorough manner, we risk plunging this country into an otherwise avoidable crisis.
The responsibility of guaranteeing Kenyans a free and fair election rests largely with the government and its civil servants, as well as those in the disciplined forces. Please remember the words "civil" and "disciplined." These are not qualities that come by chance: They are instilled through training and the cultivation of a working culture.
The first generation of African nationalists highly respected the civil service, and those governments that desisted from politicising the civil service did very well in terms of development and political stability. Such governments were few and far between. I can mention three leading examples: Botswana, Mauritius and Senegal. When Abdoulaye Wade (2000-12) tried to politicise the civil service to amend the constitution, which would have allowed him to cling to power beyond the constitutional limit, he received strong resistance from both the political and civil societies, which ferociously defended the need to preserve the integrity of the civil service.
Twice, in the history of Kenya, politicians have tried to draw our military into politics. Twice this has failed. This did not happen because of a strong political culture that believes in a neutral army, but much more because of a very strong authoritarian political system that controls the army through formal and informal links.
Only General Daudi Tonje, Chief of Defence Forces in 1996 to 2000, who tried to assert the relative autonomy of the army from the day to day ongoings in the political affairs of the state. Individuals who have occupied that position and have ignored or put aside the "Tonje principles" have generally let Kenyans down, particularly during the 2007-08 political crisis. I hope the current CDF is reading this piece.
Further, too much militarisation of the police, whether the ordinary police or the AP, is not good for this country. There must be a clear boundary between the work of the police and the work of the army. A recent photograph on the front page of a daily newspaper showing the Inspector General of Police armed to the teeth "ready for Kenyans in the coming election" betrayed the more civilian nature of police work.
The police only need police dogs and horses, tear gas, water canons etc to quell riots. But armed personnel carriers and mounted helicopter gunships are all preserves of the army. After all, an election is not a war between the government and its people. But when a government audaciously interferes with the process of guaranteeing free and fair election, it is likely to enter into battle with its own people, hence the militarisation of the police.
It is not too late for the Jubilee government to come to its senses and put Kenya first and individual political succession ambitions second. These are my last words before the election on August 8.