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Jubilant no more, Kenya is like a kettle on the boil - Comment

By L. Muthoni Wanyeki
Posted Saturday, April 26 2014 at 12:12

One year following the Jubilants' assumption of political power, the scorecards are out. We'd already heard from the Cabinet Secretaries.

Their anaemic accounting not so much of what their Ministries have achieved, but more of what is still in the works. The Coalition for Reform and Democracy was to release its scorecard this past week, focused on what Jubilant campaign promises remain unmet.

CORD tantalised too with the promise to release its report on last year's general election. Tidbits have already found their way into the public domain — the most titillating being the recording of a senior official with the Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya.

The ensuing accusations and denials are predictable and tiresome. But the recording itself raises two sets of questions that, contrary to the IECK's assertions, remain unanswered.

The first has to do with the voter register. The Supreme Court ruling undermined the notion that it is imperative to have one complete and up-to-date voter register.

It failed to tell us which voter register we went to the polls with. This left open questions about claims of Jubilee's ostensible success in getting voters out to register and vote. As well as questions about CORD's ostensible failure to do the same. All voter turnout figures remain suspect.

The second set of questions has to do with the improbable pattern of supposed presidential results released over time. No matter where results came in from, the gap between the CORD and Jubilee presidential candidates remained consistent over time.

Graphically, two parallel lines. There are still no plausible explanations for this pattern. This is why questions CORD raised as to the system for transmission, entry and display of results are so critical.

CORD is therefore right to say that we cannot go to another general election with these questions unanswered. The vote is not meaningless.

It is the expression of our sovereign will. It is our commitment to an orderly maintenance or transfer of political power.

Voting does not a democracy make but is still a necessary foundation for one. And the right to vote includes not just casting of the ballot, but the guarantee that that ballot will be respected.

Meanwhile, the Federation International des Ligues des Droits Humains and the Kenya Human Rights Commission have released their own scorecard.

The FIDH/KHRC report is an indictment of the Jubilants' first year in office with respect to the rights of freedom of association and expression.

The pattern illustrated is one of suppression of dissent. Disruption of demonstrations and the arbitrary arrest and harassment of human-rights defenders.

Legislative efforts to constrain the media and civil society. Extrajudicial executions and the forced repatriation of asylum-seekers in the name of counter-terrorism. Discrimination as concerns those of Somali descent, the gay community and women.