Make polls cheaper and less stressful on the taxpayers to secure democracy

Prior to plunging into the August 9, 2022 senatorial race in Murang’a County, it never dawned on me that Kenya’s ballooning cost of elections that stands at a whopping Sh40.9 billion is a ticking time bomb.

According to recently released data on government funding to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for the August elections, the country has one of the most expensive elections in the world.

Funding for the IEBC has increased steadily from Sh36 billion in 2013 to Sh49.9 billion in 2017. On average, the cost per voter is estimated at Sh2,825. India, which had roughly 814.5 million registered voters in 2014, spent only Sh65.5 billion, an average of Sh80.5 per voter.

Kenya’s expenditure on elections is also the highest in East Africa. In 2017, Rwanda spent Sh761.7 million.

Certainly, democracy is everywhere a very expensive system by virtue of the many activities that constitute the whole electoral process.

In an article, ‘Election costs: Informing the narrative’ (2017), International Idea posits that elections are an investment, not an expense.

The trouble with democracy in Africa is that heavy poll investments guarantee neither peace nor stability. In fact, electoral cycles have become the most unstable moments in emerging democracies!

Rising electoral costs are posing risk to democracy within the wider canvass of the unholy trinity of poverty, populism and poor governance, itself stoked by deepening economic crisis and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Simplifying and making elections less costly and bearable requires a clear understanding of the main causes of ballooning electoral costs.

First, as a burgeoning capitalist society, Kenya’s sense of the common good, nationhood and trust for national institutions remain weak. Bureaucracy and the social fabric are also bedevilled by an endemic culture of corruption.

Second, in response to a glaring lack of trust in the system, Kenya’s political class has adopted strategies designed to execute clean elections.

But measures to boost security, including digitising the electoral process and procuring expensive ballot papers with security features have drastically increased the cost of conducting elections. Moreover, despite the heavy investment in costly technologies, no election since 1992 has increased public trust in the electoral process or resolved the dilemma of integrity.

Third, Kenya’s electoral management system is a typical too-many-chiefs-and-not-enough-Indians scenario. While the IEBC has seven commissioners, India had only three!

Fourth, also increasing the cost of elections is Kenya’s increasingly litigious population and a highly activist Judiciary. In November 2021, the High Court ordered the IEBC to extend the countrywide mass voter listing after a Kenyan moved to court seeking the continuation of the exercise.

Forced to follow the court's order to extend the deadline for new voter registration, the poll agency spent Sh72 million – about Sh1,000 per voter, to list less than 100,000 new voters! Based on the costs incurred in 2017, legal bills may hit a Sh3 billion high after the August general election. Although the IEBC has the best brains in election laws, its legal bills are the highest in the country.

Insecurity and violence

Fifth is the cost of insecurity and violence. In the 2022 IEBC budget, election security has received a funding of Sh555 million. Elections in Kenya should be as simple and as peaceful as any other activity without requiring the deployment of the police and the military to oversee the process.

Finally, Kenya’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed up poll costs, including procuring items for Covid-19 prevention (Sh588 million).

The cost of elections is exacting a heavy toll on the quality of leadership and democracy. It has put off many potentially great leaders.

This has left electoral politics to a few weak and corrupt politicians. Uncontrolled use of money is increasingly influencing voters to pick leaders of dubious integrity. Use of often ill-gotten money has continued to exclude the youth, women, people with disability and other marginalised groups from leadership.

Elections are even tougher for candidates without a significant financial war-chest. With few exceptions, the more a candidate spends, the greater their chances of winning. As they say, ‘Dark money is turning elections into auctions.’

It costs on average Sh35.5 million to run for the Senate seat, Sh22.8 million to contest the county woman representative seat, Sh18.2 million for MP and Sh3.1 million to vie for ward rep. The cost is even higher for governors. The 2022 election is even higher and more competitive than either 2013 or 2017.

“A fool and his money are soon elected”, said the actor, Will Rogers. In their study titled the ‘Cost of politics in Kenya: Implication for political participation and development’, Karuti Kanyinga and Tom Mboya reveal the heavy toll that election costs are exacting on the quality of our democracy and leadership.

One absurdity is that politicians tended to spend more money to be elected than what they legitimately earn once in office. Election is bad business. It is a bad draw between cost and returns. As currently configured, elections are vicious battles of egos and money, everywhere promoting voter bribery, electoral violence and other malpractices.

The poll agency is saddled with old and new debts. Bills from the 2017 polls also haunt the commission. An ICT bill totalling Sh798.7 million is yet to be settled. In the current budget, Sh2.3 billion has been set aside to settle pending bills.

So, what needs to be done? The IEBC should explore simpler ways to conduct elections and make them cheaper and less stressful on the taxpayer. It should tame corruption and enforce national values to expand room for trust and reduce the cost of electoral structures and technological strategies.

The government should consider devolving the funding and management of future elections to counties to reduce overall electoral costs.

At the moment, funding for elections comes from the national government and administration of elections is centralised to the electoral management commission based in Nairobi.

Counties should meet some election expenses, including paying poll workers and managing polling sites, training local election officials and production and distribution of information to voters. With high electoral costs, money and ‘stupidity’ will, surely, give idiots the best chance to win elections.

Professor Peter Kagwanja is a former Government Adviser and now Chief Executive of Africa Policy Institute.