Kenya’s Parliament has lived to its billing once again — that of putting the interests of politicians above those of the country. Their rejection of the plan by IEBC to cap election funding shows they care little for democracy.
Fight against impunity should be at the front and centre of our Parliament and the responsibility of doing so lies squarely in the hands of MPs. Frustrating issues of concern to Kenyans, such as democracy, shows our MPs have not the foggiest idea what they are in Parliament for.
The law should not be about giving all the opportunities to those with financial influence but to create a level playing field in our political sphere. The ideal would be a case of an aspirant selling enough chickens (no Ruto’s UDA pun intended!) to raise required funds for campaigns and have equal opportunity to battle it out with other interested parties.
Equal opportunity is the cornerstone of any democracy. By rejecting capping of election funds, our MPs are saying only the rich are allowed to play the fields. No wonder, the rich are getting richer because every chance to curtail their illegal moves is frustrated by the very Parliament that should be fighting impunity.
There are many able and willing Kenyans with superb leadership qualities being discouraged to vie for elective posts because of unchecked spending during elections. Bottomless campaign funds are bound to benefit only those with deeper pockets and the most corrupt.
Unless our Parliament has been to sleep, the MPs will realise that the political class has been bang in the middle of most of the financial scandals ravaging the country. For instance, at least eight former and serving governors are facing corruption charges. Being corrupt is the dream of any aspiring Kenyan politician, it seems.
Two reasons that support the theory are, first, speedy personal enrichment through corruption and, secondly, undermining of democracy by using the looted funds to lock out aspirants with less money. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that the same looted public funds make their way back into election campaigns to bribe voters. Our politicians are some of the highest paid but it is not so high a salary that they end up with money on tap enough to spend billions on campaigns.
‘Carte blanche’ expenditure
Fiscal transparency during campaigns is crucial in a corrupt country such as ours to trace the source and destination of campaign funds. Many established democracies demand transparency when it comes to election funds. What it so special about a young democracy such as ours for politicians to demand carte blanche expenditure during campaigns and secrecy for ‘questionable’ donors?
There is so much risk involved in having an open-ended use and lack of audit of campaign funds including the risk to national security. Why would an individual with bottomless campaign funds not buy goons to destabilise a democratic process? ‘Gangster-esque’ scenes at every one of our previous election proves this.
We have had huge challenges with our leadership in the past decades because every Tom, Dick and Jacky has been allowed to vie for a political seat as long as they bring in the votes at whatever cost. The crooks have become savvy at twisting the law in their favour to hang on to power.
Chapter Six of the Constitution has pretty much been declared redundant and those facing economic crimes, rape and murder charges (regrettably) still form part of the leadership of this country. The Constitution’s chapter, on integrity, may as well be repealed if the trend of passing laws to protect corrupt politicians persists.
Parliament keeps looking for wiggle room to amend the law even when it is immoral and unethical to do so. Its latest bid to tinker with the law to reject capping of campaign funding proves MPs have always looked out for themselves and nobody else. This is a law that’s clearly made to favour politicians who have had the opportunity to steal and save for the next campaign; one that would make it easier for them to hold on to their seats based on how deep their pockets are and not how useful and effective their ideology is.
Capping election funds makes democracy fun too when we see novices taking on the dinosaurs of politics because the novices can finally afford campaign funds. These need to be reasonable, realistic and achievable by every political aspirant. Kenyan politics has got to get out of the rut of criminality during elections in order to sanitise its democracy.
The bribery culture during elections is, in fact, illegal but has become a common feature in our elections and Big Money is, obviously, needed to induce voters. That cannot be democratic but survival of the crookedest. If Parliament cares for democracy and stability of the country, then it should put a cap on election funds to inject equity into our politics.
