Putting politicians in their place

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Nothing can possibly be as hilarious as listening to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati warn politicians for the umpteenth time that they will face unspecified consequences should they continue early campaigning for elective office.

 On Friday last week, Mr Chebukati reiterated that the official campaign period falls between May 30 and August 6 next year, which lends a whiff of crime to everything that politicians have been doing for the past couple of years, yet none of them have been found liable.

Which makes one wonder: Is Mr Chebukati serious? Does he truly live in this country and if so, could he have failed to notice the political hustle and bustle that has been going on all around him every day of the week and sometimes twice on Sunday? If the man has no way of enforcing campaign timetables or any other electoral rules, why on earth does he bother announcing them?

For instance, a highly articulate individual among the front-runners has been campaigning non-stop for the presidency in the past four years since the 2017 elections. We all know who he is and he has never hidden the fact. In the same vein, another has been busy campaigning chini ya maji using the Building Bridges Initiative but since it was scuttled by the courts, he has had to change tactics and is also busy on the hustings, giving as good as he gets from his opponents. Most of us know who he is, and so does the IEBC chief.

The reason politicians will treat electoral timelines like suggestions and not orders to be obeyed is simple: Sheer impunity.

Campaign funding

If our legislators can balk at the idea of controlling campaign funding, then they will never allow anything to come between them and their ambitions.

I would advise Mr Chebukati to concentrate on more important matters like delivering next year’s elections in a less controversial manner than he did the last one.

The little time left for him and his mainly freshman colleagues to manage the next polls should not be wasted on impotent warnings to presidential aspirants and all the other seekers-after-glory. Since the last campaigns never really stopped, they are bound to continue until someone is harshly punished for blatant infringement of electoral laws. I can’t wait for the day this happens.

Luckily, someone is doing something about premature campaigns by fobbing off politicians who have formed a habit of taking partisan politics to the pulpit and shamelessly trying to buy off worshippers.

Handouts

To an extent, some of them have succeeded wonderfully while others have not been as convincing, but, in my view, all are cynical manipulators of gullible flocks aided by shepherds whose avidity for the handout is unmatched.

A long time ago, I had a curious experience when my rural church decided to invite a member of a prominent family for a funds drive. Though the man was not a politician, he had the arrogance of newly acquired wealth and the morals of an alley cat.

Designating the lay preacher for the occasion, he decided it was time the rural folk knew just who he was by naming, one by one, his various shambas and the number of coffee trees and animals each held. By the time he came to the fifth, I had sneaked out, and never really got to know the point he had been making.

Such are the purely secular motives that some people bring to places of worship, and if they are astute politicians, they know just how influential the church is.

However, now they are effectively being put in their place by a few church leaders who have seen through their self-seeking altruism and told them enough is enough.

Three governors

The salutary lesson delivered by Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit in denying ODM leader Raila Odinga and ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi, three governors and a horde of MPs a chance to address congregants last Sunday was not just controversial but probably inspired.

It would not have done, for instance, for the two eminent leaders, who are both looking for presidential votes from western Kenya, to have traded barbs at such an important function as the consecration of Bishop Rose Okeno, the first woman to hold such high office in Kenya.

It was a bold move, but necessary, though a few church-goers may have felt cheated that their favourite politicians were not allowed to address them. One reason for this is that politicians lend colour to such ceremonies which tend to be too tedious, and many of us are gluttons for lies dished out hot.

Politicking in the pulpit has become common in Kenya especially at a time when politicians are not allowed to hold meetings due to Covid-19 restrictions. The other favourite occasions for such peccadilloes happen to be funerals and weddings, and perhaps it is time both the bereaved and happy families put their foot down as well and banned politicians from seeking votes during those functions. There is nothing as peculiar as a person singing his own praises at a funeral or hijacking a wedding to challenge his political foes.

Mr Ngwiri is a consultant editor; [email protected]