There are growing indications that the re-run presidential election in Kenya scheduled for next week may not hold. The signs are quite auspicious that the claims made against the fairness of the impending poll by the opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, may be true, after all.
One of the country’s top election officials, Roselyn Akombe, quit last Wednesday, accusing her colleagues of political bias and warning that the upcoming presidential election will not be credible.The resignation of Mrs. Akombe is the latest dramatic twist to an election process that has plunged the East African nation into its worst political crisis in a decade.
In a statement in New York, Mrs. Akombe declared “The commission in its current state can surely not guarantee a credible election on 26 October 2017. I do not want to be party to such a mockery to electoral integrity”.
Last September, Kenya’s Supreme Court ordered the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to carry out a re-run of the presidential election, after annulling the vote due to “irregularities” and mismanagement by officials.
Mrs. Akombe said that she had questioned her role at the commission for many months, but had managed to hang on. In an interview with reporters, the former IEBC official said she feared for her life and would not return to her home country in the foreseeable future.
Last Wednesday, in the western opposition stronghold, Kisumu, rowdy youths disrupted a training session for polling officials, pulling down tents and chasing away trainees, chanting “no reforms, no elections” as they stoned their vehicles.
According to Mrs. Akombe, the election cannot be credible when IEBC staff are getting last minute instructions on changes to technology and the electronic transmission of results, and when training is being rushed for fear of attacks from protesters.
“It is not too late to save our country from this crisis. We need just a few men and women of integrity to stand up and say that we cannot proceed with the election… as currently planned,” she said.
Mrs. Akombe pointed out that “There is a very high likelihood that the mistakes that some of the presiding officers made during the last election will be repeated” and warned that the lessons from a disputed 2007 election, which sparked politically motivated tribal violence that left 1,100 dead, were “too fresh, lest we forget.”
The ex-IEBC Commissioner, who took a break from a job at the United Nations to serve her country, had become a familiar face on television programs explaining the election process to Kenyans. Her resignation is likely to further stoke anxiety that has been mounting in the run up to the election.
After the August 8 vote, the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, quickly cried foul over the counting process, accusing election officials of rigging the vote in President Kenyatta’s favour. His victory in getting the Supreme Court to overturn the result was a shock to many, and hailed as a sign of the country’s maturing democracy and institutions. However, the decision has been followed by acrimony, legal battles and confusion over how to carry out a new election that is credible, in the constitutionally mandated 60-day period.
Mr. Odinga last week announced he was withdrawing from the race, arguing the move would legally force the IEBC to begin the whole process from scratch, which would allow more time for deep reforms.
Despite the confusion over what Mr. Odinga’s withdrawal from the electoral process means, election officials appear to be pushing forward with plans to hold the vote as scheduled on October 26.
