IEBC’s dark art of burning bridges, erasing boundaries

When it comes to its website and social media accounts, the “B” in “IEBC” might well stand for “blunders” instead of “boundaries”, given the recent high-profile mistakes.

Last May, for example, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission left many Kenyans puzzled when it released ridiculously erroneous results of the 2017 General Election that it hastily recalled and apologised for through a tweet.

That would not be the last of its blunders. Last week, its official Twitter account caused a storm for extrapolating the first “B” in “BBI” as “Burning” rather than “Building Bridges Initiative”.

Under fire, the commission chaired by Wafula Chebukati would later delete the tweet with an apology coming soon after, and someone at the commission is probably pondering over the words uttered by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in January 2020 on why there is no edit function for tweets already posted:

“We started as a text message service. And as you all know, when you send a text, you can’t really take it back. We wanted to preserve that vibe.”

However, the lack of an edit button on Twitter — which has seen many entities around the world soil their credibility through sorry blunders that they couldn’t edit — should not be the only thing to worry Mr Chebukati and his team.

ODM leader Raila Odinga and Siaya Senator James Orengo have been on its case recently, an indicator that IEBC has lots of bridges to build ahead of a proposed constitutional amendment referendum and the 2022 elections.

Last month, Mr Odinga said the current IEBC team should be disbanded and a new one recruited, something his critics said was akin to fighting the referee instead of concentrating on playing against opponents.

Burning bridges

Mr Odinga said those words as he scoffed at a Sh241 million bill from IEBC for verification of the BBI signatures, which was later reduced to Sh93 million.

Mr Odinga was also championing amendment to the Constitution through BBI to have IEBC disbanded and a new team selected by a body set up by political parties.

That amendment was, however, dropped at the last minute before the document went to the signature collection phase.

Mr Orengo, on his part, thinks the IEBC tweet on “burning bridges” was not an accident: “It was a glaring exposition of the mindset of the commission.”

IEBC has also stuck with controversial French firm Idemia (formerly OT-Morpho) for provision of election tools despite the fact that the National Assembly has recommended barring the firm from doing business in Kenya for 10 years.

From the look of things, Mr Chebukati and his team will have lots of bridges to build regarding their continued stay at the commission and the methodologies of conducting next year’s General Election.

A lawyer who turned 59 two days before Christmas, Mr Chebukati says in his official profile that dispute resolution is one of the areas he specialised in during his 31 years in legal practice before he took over the reins at IEBC.

Mr Chebukati likes to embellish his speeches with quotes by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. This common Lincoln line might jump to his mind given the piling IEBC blunders: “There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.”