The 2022 presidential election was not just a battle between Azimio’s Raila Odinga and UDA’s William Ruto, the frontrunners in the race for State House.

Of course, that was the basic premise against which the more complex contest played itself out. However, there were four other battles all rolled into one, and there is only one man who appears set to come out of them all with his head held high.

His name is Wafula Chebukati. You will know him by the shiny balding head that has come to dominate TV screens and newspaper pages and the demeanour that belies the steel he is made of.

For once, the man from Kiminini caught friend and foe flat-footed when, on election night, he warned that he had no presidential election results at Bomas and that anyone who wanted to know who had won the State House race had to go to the IEBC portal, download the 46,262 images and tally the results.

Alternatively, they had to go to the polling stations where the “final results” had been counted.

Like Samson and the donkey jawbone, Chebukati struck a mortal blow against anyone who had until then considered dragging him to the Supreme Court in the next one week. What he was saying, in effect, was that if errors are found in the Form 34A, the officials who compiled them would be held directly responsible.

Unlike in 2017, when returning officers were temporary staff who could get away with murder, this time around, they are permanent employees. And they will each be held liable if errors are noted in the stations they were in charge.

2017 election

This was the first battle in the election.

In the second, Chebukati appeared to aim a dagger at both the Judiciary and the media, who had put him on the spot over his handling of the 2017 election, which the Supreme Court nullified. Although the outcome of the poll was not disputed, the judges said the process had neither been transparent nor verifiable.

By putting all the results in a portal, which Chebukati assured all and sundry would remain immutable, he had, in one blow, ensured that the presidential election complies with the Supreme Court ruling, which has put his hands in a straitjacket over the last five years. There is hardly much wiggle room for the Supreme Court to nullify this year’s election unless one has earthshaking evidence.

The only escape route, which is not viable, is for the Supreme Court judges to walk back on their 2017 ruling, which they cannot because, whereas IEBC has been running elections, the courts have literally been running IEBC. Even a day after the election, courts were still entertaining petitions against the agency and another case is pending, seeking to stop the swearing-in of Ruto and his running mate, Rigathi if they are declared winners.

Tedious tallying

The media have also been in the cross-hairs of the 61-year-old lawyer who is determined to take no prisoners. In the last election, the media shone a sharp spotlight on Chebukati, piling pressure on him to release the results of the presidential election way before the deadline.

This time around, he heeded the media’s call because he gave the results within a day. In fact, some results were available on election night, prompting some critics to whine that Chebukati had engaged in a “data dump”. 

A keen observer would have noticed that Chebukai was gleeful on the two occasions he chided the media for being behind in tallying yet they had all the information they needed. It did not help matters that the second IEBC started releasing the verified constituency results, and all disjointed broadcast media abandoned the “tedious” tallying, leaving Kenyans in the dark and egg on many broadcast journalists’ faces.

Chebukati also gave a backhanded compliment to civil society, who had made a name and a living out of suing him for one electoral malpractice or the other. This blow, primarily aimed at activists, has also left judges in a bind because they granted many of the prayers that the activists sought.

This year’s election, to a great extent, has been managed as civil society had demanded. For instance, the results declared at polling stations are final, and as a result, the sting has been taken out of the drama that had become a perennial feature at the national tallying centre.

Even the few politicians who in the past thrived from that drama had to cut their losses and run because they soon realised they need to shout less and count more.

Finally, political parties will come out of this year’s elections with their eyes smarting. For once, they were unable to carry out credible party nominations and this threw them into confusion, leading to a high number of independent candidates who have ended up in the Legislature.

By contrast, however, Chebukati has conducted what has so far been a clean and credible poll and although there are murmurs of disquiet here and there, the general verdict is that even candidates generally agree that the results announced so far reflect the will of the people.

By extension, only the foolhardy will call for an overhaul of the commission and for Chebukati to be guillotined at Uhuru Park. If anything, when he retires next year, he has a high likelihood of enjoying his days in Trans Nzoia unless he chooses to go back to his legal practice.

There were other side battles in the rearguard, such as the one pitting President Uhuru Kenyatta against his deputy, which also played out in the electoral theatre. However, this deserves a separate analysis given the complexities involved.