Politicians MUST respect the IEBC

It’s a shady and oafish sportsman who enters a competition and complains about the rules and the officials of the race all the while having not yet received his score. If these elections were a shooting contest I am sure that the “comedy of numbers” would cause these politicians to raise their guns to their heads in a final salute. But oh! what wishful thinking that is. I doubt these politicians are selfless enough to rid us of their presence via suicide.

The veracity of attacks on the IEBC in the public forum is just the tip of the iceberg I am sure. Behind the scenes, the hostility towards IEBC commissioners is possibly enough to give one nightmares. As a republic we have to thank Issack Hassan for his selfless resolve to see this process to the end. Issack Hassan has more integrity and tenacity in his baby finger than all these evil politicians and their zombie supporters put together.

In an election there is a reality that the vanity of these politicians stops them from absorbing and accepting. You. Can. Lose. It’s that simple. Your chances of losing are multiplied by the number of contestants in that election. Only the completely irrational go into an election not just believing they CAN or MIGHT win, but intending not to accept defeat at all!

Long before the elections, the attacks on the IEBC had already begun, driven in the media with the sole intention of discrediting the IEBC such that the legitimacy of any election they conducted nationally is easier to challenge.

But here is the thing. It is not just the integrity of the commission that is under attack but the very essence of our democracy. It certainly is very undemocratic for political aspirants to go into an election with the sole intention of SEIZING power at all costs. We have undeserving rulers who do not respect the will of the people, and theirs is a theft not just of powerful positions but a violent robbery of the fundamentals of our republic.

Every jab is directed at the process, one that already has been determined by observers to have been conducted in a commendable manner, given the circumstances. The crudest sorts of people want to rule this nation by force it seems. In their mildest form, they attacked the IEBC through the media, and in their wildest form, they physically stormed IEBC offices in some places and distributed leaflets that intimidated and threaten members of rival communities.

When you think of what lengths these politicians will go to, to gain power, you have to ask yourself just how lucrative is that post. How much is there to gain, such that bloodshed, fear and violence are necessary? “I would kill for that job.” And they literally would kill for that job!

When I lined up on 4^th March, like every other Kenyan in that hot sun, I did not do it to elect a RULER. I did not do it to elect a KILLER. I did it, so that we can have LEADERS. I believe every other Kenyan had the same hope and intention that I did. No one in their right minds would spend 7 hours baking under the sun so that they can pick an oppressor!

Yet we are being oppressed. It is our right, it is the law, it is the mandate of the IEBC to conduct elections in a free and fair manner, free from intimidation, negative propaganda and violence. We cannot afford to trust anything these politicians claim against the IEBC while the tallying process is ongoing because their intention is to interfere with the process so as to seize what does not belong to them. Even if the IEBC needs to conduct an audit of how their systems and procedures work, so as to have a smoother electoral process, even if there were election irregularities, its still does not validate alarmist claims against Issack Hassan and his team.

This is a repeat of the 2007 elections where the now defunct ECK suffered greatly under the bombardment of the politicians. I believe strongly that it is the IEBC that stands to protect us from them, as a shield to our democracy. There is no justice in what the politicians did and will continue to do during elections.

The forked tongues of the rabid politician will call for “peace” while violently attacking the republic of Kenya and her democracy. Well, there is no peace without justice and there can be no justice if the poll loser takes to the streets and to the media rather than take their grievances to the courts. We, as Kenyans deserve better, and we did our part, we voted for the leaders we felt we deserve. We certainly do not deserve to be cheated out of that leadership, to be saddled with evil rulers and oppressors.

We need to have peace and justice in this country and the fastest way we can gain this is to demand, as a citizenry, that these politicians follow due process and respect the law. Also, it would greatly help if the media give these politicians a media blackout until the tallying process is complete. I dare say switching off the camera when the politician takes the microphone should even become the norm in Kenya.