Cybercafe to power: Curious case of the IEBC Chairmanship

Some things can only happen in Kenya. And even when they do, the initial reaction is usually one of disbelief: this cannot be happening, you tell yourself. It can’t be real.

But as surely as the sun rises, your bad dreams turn into an inescapable reality that you must live with. I was watching a clip of the gentleman nominated as the IEBC chairman during his parliamentary confirmation proceedings (for that’s what they are), and I couldn’t help but admire the brazen nature of the entire farce.

The things Erastus Ethekon said can leave any sane person doubting their sanity.

First, he confessed that he had not personally applied for the job: this rather tedious work was left to some young fellows in a cybercafé where he presumably regularly photocopies his academic credentials and perhaps uses the facility to send an email or two.

They had become bosom buddies with these cybercafe operators, and the chaps must have been impressed with his unassuming nature and his innate leadership credentials during the many years they had engaged.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  When political godfathers get their way...
• 
  'I won't be biased in favour of Ruto,' IEBC chair nominee Ethekon says
• 
  Widows, son of late MP decline executor role in Sh1b estate row
• 
  Lobby welcomes IEBC chair appointee, calls for probe into Koimburi abduction claims

The man tells us that he never really wanted to apply for the top job at IEBC: he would have been quite content with the position of a mere commissioner.

But his cybercafé buddies, while dutifully binding his documents, thought the work of a commissioner was such a lowly position for such a highly qualified individual that instead, they saw it fit to aim for the very top.

They therefore applied for the chairman’s position on his behalf. In fact, the man says he was rather shocked when he received an invitation to attend an interview for the ‘hot seat’ as he himself referred to the chairman’s job, a job he hadn’t technically applied for.

Really? Go tell it to the birds.

I have no problem having friends from all social spheres but I wonder how the IEBC chairman had become such good chums with the young fellows that they could decide on his behalf to apply for such a critical role in a clandestine manner, arranging all the documents in good order, delivering them to IEBC offices and then sit back, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the gods to do their thing.

To everyone’s delight, the gods delivered since the man is now occupying the IEBC top seat.

Even though the horse has since bolted, I would like to ask a few questions since the appointing authorities did not see it fit to ask the good man.

If he hadn’t applied for the position and he didn’t really want the hot seat (his words, not mine), where then is the commitment to the cause?

Can we trust Ethekon to dedicate himself to a job that requires the occupant to immerse himself body and soul in the morass that is Kenya’s elections?

Will he be brave enough to stand up to the politicians who have no qualms about plunging the country into indescribable chaos, as we have seen in the past, because of disputed elections?

I don’t think so.

The ‘Independent’ in IEBC means exactly that. We would like an independent body conducting elections according to the will of the people and not the will of the powers that be.

We do not want Kenyans raising cudgels against one another just because people think the election has been stolen. Confidence in the electoral body is the glue that binds the country together.

As much as I would like to give the IEBC and its chairman the benefit of doubt, his sentiments about the ‘hot seat’ leave one wondering whether, given the many candidates who had applied for the job, he’s the right person to chair such a critical body.

Unless that is, there is another criterion used in appointing the commissioners and their chairman that we mere commoners don’t know about. 

The writer is a communications consultant