> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Kenya poll result reveals deep stress on democratic institutions - URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/kenya-poll-result-reveals-deep-stress-on-democratic-institutions/ - Published: 2013-03-12T07:03:18.000Z - Updated: 2019-02-14T22:20:04.000Z - Description: The reality is that the entire range of Kenya's democratic institutions is in crisis. The weight of the state was brought to bear on this election in a way never seen before. - Author: John Onyando - Tags: Africa, #Migrated, Conflict & security, Cultural politics, Politics & activism, Migrant Futures, culture, Democracy and government, Civil Society, conflict, International politics, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 17:36 The two main news conferences after the declaration of Kenya’s presidential election results Saturday echoed sharp differences in the country regarding the role local media played in the elections. While rejecting the results, CORD presidential candidate Raila Odinga was asked why the media routinely downplayed the many objections his party had raised over the last five days of vote tallying. “It is part of a conspiracy,” he said. Minutes later, Uhuru Kenyatta who had been declared the winner paid a glowing tribute to the media, calling it “mature” and “responsible.” With Mr Odinga challenging the result in the Supreme Court, national attention is riveted on the five men and a woman who constitute the court. But the outpouring of faith in the last one institution with the mandate to safeguard the legitimacy of the election overlooks the conscious failure of literally every organ that came before it. The media is conveniently pushing the line of the court’s independence without examining how its own independence has been used. The reality is that the entire range of Kenya's democratic institutions is in crisis. The weight of the state was brought to bear on this election in a way never seen before. Kenyatta's win is being so ambitiously projected as a fait accompli that the UK Financial Times noted in a report today that even the diplomatic community, often a last flank of Kenyan society, is beginning to "appear fearful of the consequences of rocking the boat." After all the incredible reforms Kenya has made over the last five years, it came as a surprise that the country could end up with an election more tainted than even the previous one, which precipitated violence and international intervention that paved the way for sweeping reforms and the involvement of the International Criminal Court. But the result was not a surprise to ardent Kenya watchers who had seen every legal and political decision towards Kenyatta’s win carefully tailored for the outcome. The electoral, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, was at the heart of fixing the election. Official results from the Commission reveal massive fraud in the tabulation of vote tallies that could never have escaped casual prudence. The voters’ register was brazenly doctored, with thousands of voters from Odinga strongholds disenfranchised to create phantom votes in areas where Kenyatta needed them. Weeks to the election, fears were rife about IEBC, whose integrity was in doubt following credible information linking its top officials to corruption in tendering. What was not certain was whether some of its ten commissioners would be courageous enough to differ with the corrupted colleagues in the event that the rigging became evident to them. In the end, they all stuck together. The declaration of Kenyatta's win was only the climax of a game in which IEBC appeared indifferent to circumstances that would militate against a free election. For months after Mr Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto were indicted at the ICC for crimes arising from the violence of the last election, IEBC maintained that a decision on whether the two could run was a preserve of the courts, where a case was pending about whether individuals facing charges for heinous crimes qualified to stand for presidential elections in a country whose institutions are aiming towards consolidating democracy. In the last 24 hours, while Kenyans are still debating the conduct of the vote tallying, the media is pushing Kenyatta down their throats through ingratiating reporting on discredited IEBC numbers and Uhuru’s childhood in the Kenyatta household. It was common during the single party era for Kenyans to get authoritative news from the BBC and not local media. It seems we are back to those days. Comprehensive accounts of the calculated ineptness that led to the electoral commission declaration have been carried by the New York Times, BBC, Financial Times and others but not local media. The Supreme Court that everyone is writing lovingly about is no doubt composed of Kenya’s best legal minds, including three men who have suffered for reforms. However, it is untested, and Kenyans know the pressures they will be brought under. Chief Justice Willy Mutunga just before the election went public about threats to his life. The court might surprise Kenyans by ruling on the facts and evidence, for if anything history is made in times of crises. But any grand optimism is premature.