Maravi

Lessons from Kenya

Lessons from Kenya
By Editor
Thursday January 03, 2008 [03:00]

The events of the aftermath of the general elections in Kenya have once again reminded us that no election is perfect. From our own experience here at home as well as in other democracies, we have seen that each election faces a myriad of problems, irregularities and legal violations, the impact of which can be quite great in some cases. In short, what we are saying is that no election is administered flawlessly.

In the case of Kenya at the moment, we can see that the impact of alleged electoral irregularities has had a toll on human life, where estimates indicate that more than 200 Kenyans have lost their lives as a result of the dispute over the outcome of last week's elections. The supporters of Raila Odinga have rejected the results which declared incumbent Mwai Kibaki the winner and they have taken the law into their own hands to an unfortunate extent that lives are now being lost.

However, while it is acknowledged that electoral violations and irregularities are a reality of any and every electoral process, we also hold firmly the belief that any genuine and democratic electoral system should be designed to survive any and all problems that do occur. But this can only happen if the system itself is viewed as a legitimate means through which the people can express their democratic choices.

But when the people - the voters - feel that the electoral system itself is part and parcel of electoral fraud, the reaction is what we are seeing in Kenya, where the supporters of Odinga feel the electoral system has doctored the results to present Kibaki as the winner. In the absence of empirical evidence, there is no way of ascertaining the veracity of such claims and they therefore remain mere allegations, innuendos or insinuations requiring objective evidence.

Nevertheless, that is not to say that those who are aggrieved over the Kenyan elections have no case at all. We may not agree with the methods of violence being resorted to by those aggrieved by the outcome, but we do appreciate the nature of their complaints.

It is truly regrettable that some aggrieved Kenyan voters have resorted to violence because they feel the electoral process there has betrayed them. This is so because in democratic systems, electoral processes should provide an alternative to violence as a means of achieving governance.

But there is one good lesson we can draw from the Kenyan election - that when an electoral process is perceived as unfair, unresponsive, corrupt or fraudulent, its political legitimacy is compromised and stakeholders are motivated to go outside of the established norms to achieve their objectives.

And this is exactly what we are witnessing in Kenya. When people lose faith in an electoral system which is supposed to be the best and rational referee during elections, electoral conflict and violence become tactics in political competition, much as their consequences may not be desired.

The reason electoral systems must be designed in such a way that they epitomise fairness, genuineness and honesty is primarily that when they become conflictive or violent as the case is in Kenya, their function as an umpire for social decision-making is damaged and the credibility of whatever they do is questionable. We have to arrive at a realisation that the failure to conduct an election that is judged fair by all sides can pre-empt a democratic transition. And what is worse is that repeated failures can lead to violence and chronic instability and we have seen this in many countries.

We have not forgotten our own experience in 2001 in the election which the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) felt was stolen by the ruling MMD government to usher in President Levy Mwanawasa's government.

And we cannot delude ourselves and foolishly ignore the fact that the election of 2001 was fraught with many problems which made it easier for the losing parties to question and doubt the outcome to the point that they took the matter to the Supreme Court for adjudication.

Although the rest of the story is history, we still remember that even the Supreme Court, despite not nullifying the election of President Mwanawasa, did take note of the fact that there were numerous irregularities which the Electoral Commission needed to pay attention to. In last year's elections, the opposition Patriotic Front also felt that the MMD stole the vote.

Again these are just claims without much veracity. However, when one looks at the number of members of parliament whose election has been declared null and void due to electoral irregularities, it is easy to accept the reality that a lot more ought to be done to make our electoral system more acceptable and believable in whatever it does to enhance the people's right to a democratic choice of their leadership.

As a nation, we should take interest in what is happening in Kenya today and learn not to be poor students of history who are likely to repeat the mistakes of the past or those of others. If there is one thing that is clear in all this, it is the need for us as a nation to start working on our electoral system and push for reforms in areas of potential conflict or disagreement.

There is no point in behaving like ostriches when we know the areas of difficulties insofar as our electoral system is concerned. There are many areas that need to be addressed both in our Electoral Act and the Constitution. They range from issues such as appointment and composition of the Electoral Commission, sources of finance for campaigns, media access, freedom of assembly and/or association, among others.

It should be hoped that the elections we have held so far have provided us an opportunity to learn the areas of weakness in terms of election administration and we expect that serious consideration will be given as to what reforms could be made in these areas that may ultimately reduce the incidence of electoral complaints or the potential for post-election violence.

Labels: ELECTIONS, HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, KENYA

posted by MrK @ 4:17 AM