Even in the worst of the election circles in the country back in 2007, the now-defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya conducted a good election on Election Day.
Trouble only started when the counting was done at the national tallying centre.
The same thing happened in 2013, 2017 and most recently in 2022, with all these times the elections being conducted by the IEBC, which was to cure the ills of the ECK and chart the country into a new era of transparency and openness in the electoral process.
While we must be thankful to God and a resolve by Kenyans to never again revert to post-election violence such that we are still peaceful even after yet again another disputed polls, no one can seriously make the case we have reached the ideals of having an open and transparent election.
If you ask any die-hard supporter of UDA leader William Ruto, who the IEBC declared as president-elect, as to whether the elections were open and transparent, they will resoundingly say yes.
If you ask any supporter or objective follower of what happened at the Bomas of Kenya in the days following August 9 whether the elections were open and transparent, they will resoundingly tell you no.
If you dig deeper and ask reasons why anyone in either group believes as they do, those who say or believe the elections were open and transparent point to the declaration of IEBC’s chairman Wafula Chebukati that Ruto won.
Any effort to try and point out that declaration is based on cooked numbers is met with varying degree of responses from the mild to very emotional, with the common refrain being let Azimio la Umoja presidential candidate Raila Odinga accept defeat and move on.
Those who believe the elections were not open or transparent offer several reasons they believe this, starting with the fact that of the six commissioners [excluding the chairman] disowned the declaration.
The four commissioners issued a statement even as Chebukati was being confronted by an angry group of leaders at Bomas led by Senator Ledama Olekina, telling him to his face he has once again poised to deliver a decision to get us back to where we were in 2017.
In the cryptic statement, IEBC vice chairperson Juliana Cherera spoke for the group of four commissioners, first noting that commission did a good job in conducting peaceful elections across the country. However, she also dropped the bombshell that they were disowning whatever Chebukati was declaring at Bomas.
The group of four nationalists or traitors — depending on what side of the fence one sees them — ended the statement by saying they will issue a more comprehensive statement and pleaded for the country to remain peaceful and for the rule of law to prevail.
They have since provided a more comprehensive statement in which they provided reasons why they disowned Chebukati’s declaration of Ruto as winner. These reasons include Chebukati overruling them and insisting on announcing the results, despite concerns they raised.
Some of the concerns they raised include the fact the aggregation of the results was not mathematically correct and that the results did not include totals of registered voters, votes cast or rejected votes. The four also noted the final tally of the presidential election results was not brought before the commission for processing.
That is the very definition of lack of transparency in an election and, therefore, an inevitable conclusion the affected election results cannot be credible consistent with our country’s constitutional requirements.
Azimio leader and winner of the elections in the eyes of his supporters issued a statement in which he rejected the declaration of Ruto as president-elect and offered a roadmap for the way forward.
That road leads to the Supreme Court where there is little doubt Azimio will file a petition to have Chebukati’s conduct examined.
Question is will the Supreme Court go the 2013 way and toss out the petition, or the 2017 way and annul the presidential results?
Those who bet would bet on the latter.
