Three Reasons Why Kenya’s Democracy Triumphed

Cour­tesy: DW News

Kenya’s Chief Jus­tice Martha Koome.

Edi­tor’s Note: The August 2022 Kenya pres­i­den­tial elec­tion result­ed in a dis­pute that was resolved by the Supreme Court. Con­trary to pre­dic­tions that the dis­pute may result in vio­lence, the sit­u­a­tion end­ed with a peace­ful trans­fer of pow­er from the admin­is­tra­tion of Pres­i­dent Uhu­ru Keny­at­ta to a new admin­is­tra­tion led by for­mer Deputy Pres­i­dent William Ruto. Oscar Katusya tells us some of the rea­sons why Democ­ra­cy tri­umphed despite the circumstances. 

The Kenyan Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly upheld the out­come of the Aug. 9 elec­tions.

Inde­pen­dent Elec­toral Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (IEBC) Chair­man Wafu­la Chebukati declared Deputy Pres­i­dent William Ruto the win­ner. Four com­mis­sion­ers on the IEBC chal­lenged the cred­i­bil­i­ty of the results. Run­ner-up, for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Raila Odin­ga had vowed to dis­pute the results in court.

Fol­low­ing the court rul­ing, the plain­tiff, Odin­ga, in a tweet, guar­an­teed to respect the out­come despite dis­agree­ing with the rul­ing. Com­ment­ing on the ver­dict, Odinga’s run­ning mate, Martha Karua said she would not be silenced. Karua also said she will move the case to the East Africa Court of Justice.

It could be argued that the Aug. 9 Kenya elec­tions were the most trans­par­ent ever, even while griev­ances remain.

A Court Headed by a Woman

The Supreme Court rul­ing was hand­ed down by the first female Chief Jus­tice, Martha Koome. Koome has a rep­u­ta­tion for integri­ty and fair­ness. In 2021, the Chief Jus­tice thwart­ed con­sti­tu­tion­al reforms sup­port­ed by Pres­i­dent Keny­at­ta and Odinga.

Fol­low­ing the Supreme Court rul­ing, there was fake news cir­cu­lat­ing that two of the supreme court judges had resigned. This was proven to be false. The com­plainant in the elec­tions, Odin­ga,  termed the rul­ing in favor of the plain­tiff as unfair. On Sept. 16 Odin­ga voiced his com­plaints about the bad judi­cial rul­ing and vowed to pro­tect the people’s freedom.

 Election Technology and Fair Elections

Over the past elec­tions, IEBC has adopt­ed tech­nol­o­gy in elec­tion man­age­ment, which made the Aug. 9 elec­tions trans­par­ent and account­able. The results remain trans­par­ent and are ver­i­fi­able, hence more faith in IEBC. The integri­ty of the elec­tion was due in part to the IEBC’s require­ment that all results sheets from polling sta­tions be pho­tographed and uploaded to the IEBC por­tal. The results are free for all to down­load and tal­ly the num­bers in real-time.

A Free, Independent Judiciary 

The judi­cia­ry report­ed 123 elec­tion peti­tions filed, 77 for mem­bers of coun­ty assembly(MCA’s), 28 for mem­bers of parliament(MPs), 12 for gov­er­nors, 4 for women rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and 2 for sen­a­tors. Even after imple­ment­ing the 2017 Supreme Court direc­tives, the com­mis­sion still faces crit­i­cism fol­low­ing the Aug. 9 elections.

The IEBC and the Supreme Court play an impor­tant role in elec­tions as Kenyan elec­tions have always been high-stake. The integri­ty of the two bod­ies has been in ques­tion. For instance, the pri­ma­ry com­plainant Odin­ga accept­ed but dis­agreed with the Supreme Court ruling.

The win­ner, Pres­i­dent William Ruto, com­mend­ed the IEBC for being pro­fes­sion­al and rais­ing the integri­ty bar of pub­lic offi­cials while the oppo­si­tion lament­ed the institutions.