It is the season for intense politicking as the country approaches the General-Election. It never gets old to mention that elections in Kenya have always been preceded by intense and hot exchanges between political opponents and then followed by tensions and chaos.

The reason behind this has always been the doubt cast on the electoral process. The losing camps have previously made claims of election rigging both before and after the polls, creating a feeling of dissatisfaction among their supporters. Just how possible is it to rig elections in Kenya today?

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has, since 2011, been undertaking system and policy improvements with the sole aim of ensuring transparency and accountability in casting of the ballot, tallying of votes and transmission of results. To begin with, all candidates are allowed to have their agents in every polling station who should be seated inside the station alongside the election observers and accredited media personnel before the start of official polling. Ballot papers are only unsealed in the full glare of these agents. The ballot papers for all elective positions are serialised. All the ballot papers used have their respective serial number ranges recorded in the polling station diary that is available for perusal in case of a dispute. That means it is possible to calculate the number of ballot papers used and compare that with the total number of votes cast. As the voters stream in, each is given a single ballot paper for each elective position, in the full view of all observers in the room. This leaves no chance for anyone to be given two ballots for a single post. With the Kenya Integrated Election Management System kits, once a voter is identified and allowed to vote, the system will give an alert should the person try to steal a chance to vote again. Remember, identification is by fingerprint, so the matter of double registration is not possible.

After close of polling, the votes are sorted, counted and tabulated in the presence of all the agents for various candidates, media personnel and election observers. The presiding officer and their deputy as well as all agents present are then required to sign the form 34A for presidential results, ascertaining that what has been recorded are the actual figures as tallied at the polling station. These forms are then uploaded to the official website of the electoral commission, where they are freely accessible to all. The Presiding officer keeps a copy and each of the agents is also given a copy of the results form. Should anyone have a valid claim of vote figures tampering, they should be able to point it out beyond reasonable doubt by providing the actual tabulated results to credit their dispute.

With such a system and measures in place, election rigging is not as easy as our politicians make it sound like. It is a difficult attempt that will easily be exposed with factual evidence as opposed to general claims. Voters therefore need to be wary that claims of election rigging are a defeatist tale coined by politicians with certain intentions in mind. Pre-election, the claims are proof that a political camp has “listened to the ground” and from the sound and look of things, they may be headed for a defeat. Selling claims of planned rigging to their supporters is an attempt to prepare the supporters to follow them in rejecting the outcome of the elections. With a strong vote base supporting the claims post-election, the losing camp will leverage the numerical strength of their supporters to push the winning side to meet their demands, which are mostly to get a share of  government. What normally follows these games are untamed tensions, which culminate in political violence causing loss of lives, permanent injuries, destruction of property and crippling of the economy.

Kenyans should learn to demand mature and honest politicking as opposed to deceitful propaganda aimed at whiping the emotions of the masses to favor the apsirations of the politicians.

Mr Mugolla is a public policy analyst. [email protected]