The first victim of today’s election in Kenya was the unfortunate head of the electoral commission’s technology department. Chris Msando was abducted and strangled apparently because he had access to all the passwords and secret codes within the voting system. His body bore the marks of torture. The chances of vote rigging are thus dangerously high. Some 180,000 police officers and soldiers have been deployed in case of violence over a disputed outcome.
According to opinion polls, not much separates the incumbent president, Uhuru Kenyatta, from his rival Raila Odinga. The party system is dominated by tribal blocs and this remains the main way of mobilising voters in the divided country. Since official positions can give access to lucrative contracts or business connections, there is a great deal at stake not only for the presidential candidates but also for contenders for parliament and local councils who are also standing for election today.
Whoever wins the presidential vote needs to ensure that voting procedures across the board leave no room for doubt. Both candidates also have to exercise control over their supporters to head off the kind of riots witnessed in the 2007 elections when more than 1,000 people were killed. The future president has to commit himself to a major corruption clean-out; it is the bribery culture rather than the tribal division that makes elections so explosive in the country.
Mr Kenyatta, who won the presidency in 2013 with the smallest of margins, has overseen a period of high investment in infrastructure and a property boom. This has brought annual growth rates of 5 per cent. China has ploughed money into road-building and a railway line connecting Nairobi with Mombasa. Internationally, Kenya is praised for its contribution to the fight against al-Shabaab, the terror group in the Horn of Africa.
These achievements have come at a cost. Government debt has doubled and many predict a debt crisis next year. On World Bank governance indicators, Kenya lags well behind Ethiopia and South Africa in combating corruption and in government efficiency. Transparency International, the corruption watchdog, blames among other factors a shrinking media space, lack of public access to information and a judiciary lacking in independence.
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These flaws became all too clear when The Times’s Africa correspondent, Jerome Starkey, was expelled from Kenya last year. No explanation was given beyond an unsubstantiated reference to national security. The reporter had been researching a potentially embarrassing story about the financial manipulation of the political elite. The move, though by no means as harsh as the treatment given to critical local reporters, was in breach of Kenya’s own constitution and its own penal code.
The new president should send a useful signal to the world, to investors worried about the rule of law in Kenya and to Britain in particular by allowing our correspondent to continue his work. Britain supports the Kenyan intelligence services, its army and police. It remains a significant donor of aid to Kenya. Yet Britain, wary of being accused of postcolonial interference by Mr Kenyatta, has been too timid not only in pressing the case of Starkey but also in speaking out on the broader issues of good democratic practice.