MADNESS OF DOING SAME THING(S) OVER AND OVER

Kenyans are insane. At least according to the person who once wittily remarked that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome”. Some people attribute the quote to Albert Einstein; others think it was Mark Twain or Ben Franklin. I have no clue who said it either.

LAST MINUTE VOTER REGISTRATION

The IEBC estimates that a whopping nine million plus (9,130,269) Kenyans with IDs have not registered as voters. As it turns out, this massive number of unregistered voters did not pop up out of nowhere. It is not news. These are statistics that successive governments have known but have been unwilling to address once and for all.

Instead, each election year, successive governments have chosen to treat Kenyans to a last minute ‘mass’ voter registration rush. Suffice is to say the exercises have borne little fruit in ensuring Kenyans of voting age are duly registered to exercise their inalienable right to vote.

Just like the previous years, the IEBC is currently on the same path seeking to register new voters en-masse. By the look of things, this exercise too is going to bear little fruit. In Kisumu County for example, only about 47,000 new voters have been registered so far against the IEBCs projection of 400,000 new voters by the end of the exercise in mid-February.

POLITICIANS ARE NO EXCEPTION

Mr Politician is not left out in the mad dash either. Every politician worth his salt is out ‘mobilising’ voters in their stronghold to come out and register as voters. It is an election period and all of a sudden, voter registration is the emergency – a priority to the government and politicians – never mind that hunger is threatening to kill the very people expected to register.

As usual, Mr Politician is doing it the same way he’s always done it; mount public address systems on top of vehicles and move from one location to the other in snaking motorcades, threaten local administrators for nothing, ask partners to withhold sex from each other, hire goons to harass entire populations for ‘not’ having IDs and voters cards – the list is endless.

The outcome however is always the same – low voter registration and low voter turnout on election day!

As Obama once observed keenly, “it is a failure; a failure of imagination” on the part of our leaders.

VOTER APATHY IS THE PROBLEM

There has to be something fundamentally wrong for someone to lack the desire to register as a voter. People don’t just decline to register or to vote. Top on the list is stolen elections. I mean why bother to register to vote in an election whose outcome is going to be determined by who ‘steals’ the most number of votes?

Number two is pathetic leadership. Once voted into office, we all know what our politicians do – partake in an orgy of never ending corruption scandals. From the MCA, MP, Women Rep, Senator, Governor to the OP, corruption and abuse of office is the order of the day. So what would motivate Wanjiku to come out and register as a voter when it only benefits the politician and the stooges around him?

How does one expect a hard working Kenyan to show enthusiasm in elections while public coffers will always be looted dry irrespective of the monkeys…sorry, political outfit that ascends to government?

WAY FORWARD?

As long as the above issues are not dealt with, expect the number of unregistered voters to grow exponentially.

For the voter registration exercise to bear the desired outcome, all the stakeholders in the game – from the government, the IEBC and the politicians – will need to change their approach and way of thinking.

A good approach would be to merge both ID and voter registration under one docket. That is for Kenyans without IDs. Because all one needs to vote now is their ID (or passport) this would be like hitting two birds with one stone. To supplement this approach, the stakeholders would have to organize things like free medical camps in remote areas. Kenyans in the remote are particularly not keen on obtaining national IDs, let alone registering as voters. But we all have affinity to free things. And because we all need medical check-ups in our lifetime, the attendances to these camps are always great. The catch would be to register for National ID or as a voter at the camp (at registration desk provided) before accessing the free medical check-up.

In the meantime, let us continue doing the same thing over and over again in the hope that the result would be different. IT WON’T!