Lessons for Africa from Kenya’s just-ended polls

 

Lifetime member of the Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador and author of over 20 books

What you need to know:

Why spend billions on something unproductive? How much money would Kenya have saved had it used manual ballot papers? What does this say about the country? Does it mean that some African countries have decided to divorce technology the same way they did with democracy that they tamper with like diapers? 

Although African governments, just like others, spend billions of shillings on acquiring and teaching technologies, the just concluded general elections in Kenya proved that technology can be abused, corrupted, and outsmarted where there is venality and the lack of ethicality, and patriotism. 

        While this matter’s still sub judice–it’s still before the court–considering some of the affidavits filed before the court to prove that there were hacking and tampering with technology, Africa needs to revisit its quest for spending money on technology that doesn’t deliver as expected as was in Kenya’s just-concluded elections.Technology is inexorable. However, for the countries that can spend billions on something that doesn’t deliver, it is another type of corruption.

         It’s sad to find that pebble-dependent elections in the Gambia can deliver dependable results, but Kenya integrated election management systems (Kiems) kits couldn’t. Why spend billions on something unproductive? How much money would Kenya have saved had it used manual ballot papers? What does this say about the country? Does it mean that some African countries have decided to divorce technology the same way they did with democracy that they tamper with like diapers?

        What good can a president produced by forgery, hacking, and rigging do for his or her country? Can such a president serve his or her people instead of his or her hankering for power and wealth? What would Africa do to avert the dangers corrupt systems pose? 

        Although there are many ways of foiling political criminality, ethics is the first frontier Africa must explore. Instead of allowing rich criminals to run for presidency and other positions, there must be a system that will deny such characters to participate in politics.

        Africa’s constitutions and systems need to make presidents accountable to their people instead of being accountable to their masters abroad and tummies. If this is introduced and entrenched in the constitution, presidency will soon cease to be a life-and-death matter since it places heavy onuses on whoever wins it. 

        Also, we need to have the presidency that can be easily expelled from office whenever it goes wrong. This is what I call the deconstruction of presidency. Without deconstructing the presidency and its powers to offer latitude to those elected to plunder their countries instead of serving them, Africa hasn’t seen the worse yet.

         Actually, presidency in Africa is a tool with which to use and exploit the mass instead of serving them. African presidents serve their families, friends and tummies but not the electorate. They are like demigods that are above the law.

        Currently, African presidency isn’t only a tool by which to plunder the country but also to ruin it and its people without those doing so being brought to book provided they remain in power or install their stooges to take over after them.     

        Here’s where the dangers and root causes of dictatorship and abuses of and tampering with the constitution lie. Because of the ability to abuse and misuse power and countries, African presidency  becomes something for which people are ready to kill or die.

                If anything, that’s why political criminals go to great lengths of hiring other Tec criminals to corrupt and manipulate systems in their favour as it is alleged to have happened in Kenya.  If proved that some candidates hired hackers to corrupt and defeat the Kiems, they must be banned from running for public office so that this can be a good lesson for others envisaging the same.

        Why Kenyan elections? We all know how presidency saved the outgoing president and his deputy from the ICC’s scaffolds after being indicted of crimes against humanity. To survive, the duo had to clinch presidency by all means possible and thereby secure immunity against criminal liability, which they got. Remember. The ICC’s case has never been legally disposed. It means, the ICC can come calling anytime.

         Thus, for William Ruto to secure his freedom, he must also become president by all means possible even if doing so means to wreck the country economically and financially.  Even if it means abusing such expensive systems bought by poor people’s taxes. Those are virulent lessons from Kenya’s elections.

Source: Daily Monitor today.