I have decided to do a sequel to my article in this column last week, “Rule that requires employees to resign before an election unfair”. Most of the readers did not seem to agree with me but I think they are just myopic of the unfairness.
I believe rule has not been thought through well. It needs serious discussion, where all pros and cons are considered, prior to making it law. We already see its impact on the running of the government as workers resign en mass to vie in the August general election.
For a start, services in government will be hampered for the next six months or even a year as we await appointment of new officials. This vacuum should have been envisaged before demanding that officials resign in droves.
What I have gathered from those who wrote in on the issue is that they have this assumption that elections are the preserve of senior public and state officers and the current crop of politicians eyeing a return to their seats.
But if we are to understand that vying for a post is open to every Kenyan who fulfils the requirements on education and integrity, then this tunnel vision of who should vie or not would not exist.
Let me first tell you the story of Marina Udgoskaya. Marina was a cleaner in a government office in a Russian village called Povalikhino.
She vied for election in 2020 and beat the incumbent, who was also her boss, by a landslide. I will spare you the other details of this story but the interesting part is that voters had ‘had enough’ of the incumbent and voted him out.
This goes to show that voters’ apathy can compel them to turn to the unlikeliest of people if they have better leadership and integrity qualities. The moral of the story is that anyone can be elected. We should stop this idea that the only deserving person is one who can afford handouts.
Handouts are, in themselves, in breach of the election rules. It is a form of financial inducement, which is unfair to poor candidates.
Call it ‘chai’ or whatever you will but it is still a bribe—whether that comes with reduced food prices, wheelbarrows, donations to churches or student bursaries.
If there is one thing that need to be outlawed, with a view to fair elections, is handouts. It is the monster that feeds the corruption dragon in Kenya. If it is outlawed, then even the poorest of candidates will have a chance to be heard from a level campaign platform.
Curb corruption
One other concern that readers raised is that the resignation rule is necessary to curb corruption. I disagree. There are many corrupt officials who steal with no intention of vying for a political seat.
Still, huge and unregulated campaign funds have a whiff of corruption—the more reason to regulate them. Greed, poor remuneration of workers and delayed salaries are some of the things that immensely contribute to corruption. Sadly, corruption is our reality, but it should not be a reason to enforce the election-related resignation rule.
Elections should be open to every eligible Kenyan, whether they work in private or public sector or are unemployed, as long as they have a better vision for the country than the incumbent.
Aspirants do not need to have their socioeconomic rights impinged upon to satisfy another right—that is, civic rights. And unlike those in self-employment, many workers who express an interest in politics run the risk of losing their income and right to employment.
There are better and legal ways of allowing employees to try their hand at politics without exposing them to financial hardship should they fail to win a seat.
One other thing that many Kenyans focus on is the fact that employees will have no time to campaign. Which is not true. This is a period that can be factored into the months an employee takes as unpaid leave, or even terminal leave.
If we had the campaign schedule strictly adhered to, then everybody, including public servants, who is interested in politics can plan ahead. The long-drawn-out campaign season beloved of serving politicians are unfair to those with limited time. Fair elections should start with fair campaigning period. Period!
Many also assume that campaigns can only be conducted by gathering masses of people at any given time. It is, in fact, cruel, degrading and inhumane to have thousands of people gathered and made to stand under the hot sun just to listen to a handful of people sheltering in tents insult their opponents, who are mostly not present or in a position to defend themselves.
It is time this barbaric culture is done away with, and campaigning conducted in a much more civil and humane way.
Technology has played a big part in elections and campaigns elsewhere in the world and it is time Kenya’s electoral process went strictly online. People should be gathered in business premises, offices and factories to work, not under the hot sun to be fed empty political promises. BY DAILY NATION