NEW POLL EVIDENCE CHALLENGES THE LEGITIMACY OF THE KENYAN RULING CLASS

If what has been reported in the Kenya media about massive flaws in the last general elections is true, then one wonders whether the current Parliament is legitimate, and whether it has the moral and legal rights to pass laws on behalf of forty million Kenyans. The same applies to devolved governments.

In a report that is likely to embarrass the ruling class, legitimise opposition claims of poll rigging, and question further the integrity of the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC), a reported internal audit of the March 2013 elections shows:- that a large number of registered voters were not included in the national voters' roll; that important "data" was lost while being transmitted from the field to the tallying centre in Nairobi; that some Biometric Voter-Registration (BVR) kits crashed before data was fully backed up; and that the IEBC did not even know the total number of voters.

There have also been allegations of corruption and ineptitude on the part of senior officers of the organisation.

The report represents a serious indictment of the electoral body since the IEBC has all along boasted the elections were fair and just - claims that were supported by some non-governmental organisations - and that they met the thresholds of global standards.

But what is emerging now from the incontrovertible audit, which the electoral body is yet to challenge, is that the entire process failed the test and that the IEBC has a case to answer in the court of public opinion. From what we now know, what took place in the last elections was reprehensible and an unforgivable act of turpitude.

That there were flaws in the elections is a matter in the public domain. An unprecedented number of petitions were filed by "losers," and many won their cases in court, and by-elections were held. But that was only a small fraction of the contestants because many could not afford the expense and trouble of going to court.

What was not known was the extent of the anomalies and the massive administrative inefficiencies that surrounded the poll exercise.

What is disappointing is that after the elections, not a single leader came out to challenge the WHOLE process with the intention of nullifying the ENTIRE election and forcing a fresh one. Leaders were prepared to go along with the injustice as long as their personal and partisan interests were catered for.

And even when Raila Odinga petitioned the Supreme Court, he made Kenyans believe it was only the presidential elections that had defects. He knew this was not true. The entire process was bungled and any petition should have challenged the legitimacy of all the seats in the National assembly, the Senate, and in the devolved government, instead of focusing just on the presidency. It reduced the whole intervention to a personal fight between Raila and Uhuru.

My view is that Kenyan leaders should not have sacrificed justice for partisan and/or personal interests. To allow illegitimacy in our body politic is to encourage lawlessness and entrench impunity.

Now that the cat has been let out of the bag, so to speak, I expect organisations like the Law Society of Kenya and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) to lead the way and show Kenyans how they can reclaim their rights.

And that is my say.