Grumbling over the composition and operations of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has raised concerns and anxiety over the fate of the 2027 General Election. 

Worries about delays in the commission’s preparations for the election, now just about two years away, have reached alarming proportions, particularly among those whom it concerns most – the electorate. 

Forget about the so-called “people’s representatives”, the majority of whom in Kenya’s past 13 elections have proved to aspire only for their personal interests rather than serving the voters who put them in these positions to deliver their basic needs. 

Such is the disconnect between the electorate and the politicians occupying hundreds of high-paying positions with countless avenues for siphoning public funds in Kenya’s two-tier system of national and devolved governments. 

Indeed, to millions of impoverished Kenyans perennially bamboozled with false and empty promises every five-year election cycle, Kenya’s electoral process is a machine for churning out candidates to gorge on a perpetual State-funded gravy train. 

To them, the delays in constituting and operationalising the IEBC are just a tactic for the continuation of this ritual that sanitises a well-orchestrated conspiracy to perpetuate the dominance of a clique of politicians advantaged by its paralysis. 

Not even howls of protest from a disjointed opposition on the IEBC imbroglio can convince a sceptical and now wiser electorate familiar with undemocratic machinations that manipulate the Constitution and the electoral process for selfish gain. 

After all, they are birds of the same feather – the archetypical Kenyan politician – be they in the opposition, a coalition, or a broad-based government. But the tide is fast turning, and 2027 could just be their waterloo, especially after the Gen Z reawakening.  

The unfolding youth activism and Gen Z protests led by an enlightened generation have opened the eyes of the Kenyan electorate to the inherent imperfections in Kenya’s system of governance, including the electoral process.

This cohort forms the bulk of Kenya’s population, and the latest census showed that 75 per cent of the population is below the age of 35 years.  

That’s why they are determined to make their mark in the 2027 election by asserting their demographic dividend to gift Kenyans the democratic reward they have long been denied through an electoral system that largely favours the undeserving.  

As the landmark Kriegler Report of 2009 rightly declared, to conduct democratic, lawful elections, the electoral commission must be in place and fully operational at least two years before the election date.  

The Gen Z youth and the opposition must now scrutinise IEBC to ensure it is radically transformed to deliver free, fair, transparent, accountable and credible elections.  

Forget about endless court actions. The horse already bolted out of the stable. Time now to focus on the nitty-gritty of the electoral process, beginning with voter registration, where one astute observer said vote rigging begins. 

Procurement of election technology, voting systems and balloting materials for the 2027 election should exclude all vendors in the 2012, 2017 and 2022 elections. 

All eyes on IEBC. 

The writer comments on national affairs