Hubris. Icarus was given wings held together with wax. He flew higher than he should have. The wax melted. His wings fell apart. He plunged to his death. It is a lesson that Kenyan public officials continue to ignore until it is too late. In the past decade alone, Christopher Murungaru, David Mwiraria, Amos Kimunya and the late Samuel Kivuitu have come to taste the bitter fruits of hubris. It is a matter of time before the commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) do so too. Every institution connected to the IEBC and the 2013 presidential election will be tainted.
In March 2013, Kenyans went to the polls and elected a President and Deputy President, a Senate, a National Assembly, forty seven Governors and Deputy Governors and County Assemblies. For the most part, the elections passed off peacefully enough. But there was a spectacular collapse in technology deployed for the elections, technology we were promised would make the process faster and more credible.
First, there was the registration of voters. Electronic devices were imported at exorbitant cost for the purpose. What the election petition against the presidential election results attempted to demonstrate is that despite the public pronouncements of the IEBC that the voter register was complete, it was nothing of the sort. The IEBC all but admitted this when it came to the accusations it levelled against Kethi Kilonzo, who wished to succeed her late father as the Senator of Makueni, when it came referring to various "books" in relation to the registration of voters, the registration of voters with unmeasurable biometrics, the registration of voters after the process was officially over, and so on and so forth.
Second, there was the actual casting of ballots. Voters were to be identified on the basis of the biometric data collected by the IEBC. This was to be done by separate electronic devices also acquired at exorbitant cost. A sensational investigation by Kenya's favourite "investigative reporters" revealed that there was no practical reason for using separate systems to register and verify the details of voters. The equipment used for the registration of voters was perfectly adequate for confirming the details of the very same voters. More importantly, there would be no reason to engage in the exercise of transferring the data from one electronic system (which we knew worked) to another system (which we now know had not been tested to verify that it worked).
Third, there was the transmission of the results. The results were to be transmitted using a dedicated network acquired by the IEBC at yet even more exorbitant cost. Again, the transmission system had neither been tested nor had it been verified that it would guarantee accuracy. During the week of the election, beginning on election day, even the IEBC admitted that the transmission system failed in large swathes of the country.
Despite all this, the IEBC declared results and announced winners and the tallies of their votes. This will remain in dispute for years to come, but only those who won or who successfully defended their seats against election petitions think that the elections were credible. The elections were not credible. They might have been free and candidates may have been accorded a level playing field during their campaigns to promote fairness, but the election was not credible. How could it be when all the billions that were expended to collect voter data, verify voter data and transmit election results went to waste because it was unusable and fatally flawed? Part of the reason why Kenyans were keen on the acquisition of electronic devices to secure parts of the electoral process was that the mainly manual system that had existed since 1960 was deathly susceptible to manipulation.
The IEBC commissioners continue to do as high ranking government officials in Kenyan tend to do: they declare for all the world to hear that their consciences are clear; that they did noting wrong; that the mistakes committed by them and their Commission are minor ones that should have no long term adverse effects on the nation; that they have successfully superintended by elections without allegations of lack of credibility being made; that they should be trusted to oversee the next general elections. This is hubris. They may prevail today because of the political bickering between the majority and Minority parties. But one day the commissioners will fly too close to the sun, the wax will melt, their wings will fall apart and they come face to face with an immutable law of physics: gravity.
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