A Failed Litmus Test: Which Way Kenyan Voters?
Earlier this year, I posted here that Ayub Mwakesi was my hero of 2010. He was the young political campaigner and voter from Matuga Constituency in Coast Province who felt irked enough by the election results to take the declared Parliamentary contest winner and then Minister for Transport to Court. As a result of Ayub’s win of the election petition against the Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister, the Speaker of the National Assembly declared the Matuga Parliamentary seat vacant and the Interim Independent Election Commission (IIEC) declared a by-election for Monday 12 July 2010.
The expectation of non-Matuga constituents it seems was that the immediate former MP was unpopular and was therefore unlikely to reclaim the seat. How wrong the assumption. The immediate former MP has won the by-election by a convincing majority. The election was declared “free and fair” by independent observers and the IIEC has been commended for a sterling job. In fact, the results from polling stations were submitted to the voting centre at Government Training Institute (GTI) and simultaneously to the IIEC headquarters in Nairobi electronically using mobile phone technology and was thus in real time and unadulterated. The man won!
One interesting turn of events, and a rather disturbing one is that the constituents are openly confessing that they “sold” their vote to the highest bidder – this time the going rate has risen sharply from less than US$1 (or KShs 50) to US$ 40 (or KShs 3,000). Thus, although the Election Court, in concluding the election petition within a realistic time frame, the Court was commended for moving with speed and declared a ruling that many considered “just” (afterall, it is common knowledge that the 2007 General Election in Kenya was botched, not free or fair anywhere in the country).
And as for voter education, after all, the mantra became “take the money, ensure that it is worth your while, but vote with your conscious”. And so they did.
This turn of events, not so much that Matuga constituents reinforced their initial selection but more that Kenyans continue to be poor, desperate and vulnerable to the extent that the power at the ballot means nothing but a meal (so said one contributor to a breakfast radio show on Tuesday 13 July 2010). I see this as “2 steps forward and 100km back”. And I fear for Kenya at the Referendum scheduled for 4 August 2010, with the push and pull, hate speech campaigning. I register my “total fear” for the 2012 General Elections.
God Protect Kenya.
