‘Cherera Four’: Time to rethink what governance system works best for Africans

Kenya is divided along ideological lines. Although political campaigns and heated debates for votes are over, the ripple effects of the actions of four electoral commissioners will hang on the necks of Kenyans for months.

'Get the four Chereras out’. This phrase has been the clanging song on the lips of President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza alliance.

What has been happening

Over the past week, President Ruto’s government has been busy with several mandatory obligations, such as the launch of the Hustler Fund and the swearing-in of Principal Secretaries. But the subject of the Cherera Four, as they have been termed, is still hot.

The process to removing the four from the electoral agency has started and the President has been heavily involved. He’s responding to his critics word by word on why the Cherera Four must keep their oaths and keep their personal interests to themselves.

Remember, these four, who include the vice-chair of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Juliana Cherera, stood against the chair, Wafula Chebukati when he declared Ruto winner of the August polls.

They were suspended on Friday, December 2, after hearings in Parliament by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee. Their suspension, gazetted, takes effect immediately.

But the other side and the main rival of the Azimio party, led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, thinks President Ruto’s group is terrorising people who stood their ground against corruption in the elections.

Taking the bull by the horns

Ahead of this action by the President, though, it appeared that Odinga had already decided to take the bull by the horns.

He wants to ensure that there are protests across some large cities, including Nairobi and Mombasa, to rally support for the four that some think betrayed the state and breached the Constitution in an effort to gratify their parochial interests. In Odinga’s own words, he “would bring this system down”.

Objectivity of process and court case

Without casting any insinuations, the question of those who may find themselves in ‘objective positions’ would be how the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee dominated by members of the President’s alliance can fairly judge whether the Cherera Four are at fault and need to go.

Aside from the Twitter banter between the five-time presidential runner and opposition leader and the current President, the issue seems to have taken another turn. It’s in court.

Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah thinks the President’s open comments and mannerisms on the matter indicate he has already judged the four before the due process spelt out by Article 251 of the Constitution could be exhausted.

Omtatah alleges that there is another petition to remove the chair of the IEBC, Chebukati, the man who declared the elections in Ruto’s favour, but the President’s fixation is on the four.

The four and the test of the law

Why on earth will persons who have vowed to protect the Constitution choose to publicly disagree with a declaration of election results, elections they helped to organise? Was their action a clear betrayal of the country’s ‘bible’ that they were to hold dear and protect?

What will make these individuals make such a decision in a General Election featuring a five-timer who had never thought of giving up on his dreams of governing a nation of over 49 million and would stick to his guns no matter what?

Is it also that perhaps these four really saw something wrong they wanted to correct as alleged by Odinga or maybe their personal interests so much dominated their minds they lost their sense of professionalism?

Election challenges in other African countries

But Kenya is not alone in election controversies.

South Africa is possibly going through an early election crisis, with President Cyril Ramaphosa already in hot water over what local media call ‘Farmgate’, the story regarding the theft of some $500,000 from his farm.

The African National Congress (ANC) is due to meet in mid-December to decide whether to invest Mr Ramaphosa as a candidate for a second term in the 2024 presidential election by re-electing him as party president.

With impeachment or a possible resignation on the way, it looks like the country’s controversial former President Jacob Zuma is having a good laugh at his opponent, who came to power on a ticket of ridding the country of corruption but is now under pressure over possible constitutional breaches that have tanked the rand on the international market in recent days.

Questions and way forward

Some of these issues in some African countries, including those seen as examples of maturing democracies like Ghana, have caused critics to question whether democracy as it is in these countries is working as it should.

Can there be a combination of what works for a particular group of people, without necessarily implementing a particular style of governance system because that is what works for, say, the developed world? Kenya, for instance, practises a unitary government with a British-style Parliament consisting of the National Assembly and the Senate. Ghana’s style is a sort of hybrid between those of the US and the UK.

Inasmuch as developed countries have their own issues, why have African countries failed to analyse what could be the problem with their systems so they can ‘create’ ones that work for them – for a people who think and act differently with eyes for culture and traditions that are different from the rest of the world?

In a document, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat spelt out five principles of global governance and global rules for development in the post-2015 Era. Two of them are “inclusiveness, transparency and accountability”, and “responsible sovereignty”.

In thinking about whether there must be a special module for Africans, what can be done with these principles in mind?

Perhaps it’s time to think outside the box a little bit.

- Beatrice Adu is a journalist from Ghana and the news editor at Asaase Radio in Accra.