OPERATION NO ELECTIONS 2022: @NOElections2022 & THE DOGGED HOPE OF VOTER ABSTENTEEISM:
“#ONE2022 This is a government of thieves without shame and decorum. With such glaring admission and a president still says “He is in charge” as though it is something to boast about!”
In this political moment, there is an increasing number of people who are resistant to voting in the next election. Not because of threats to push the election one year back if BBI is not passed[1] nor is it because of intelligence reports of potential security risks from criminal elements within bodaboda cartels[2]. I’m referring to people who do not intend to vote at all. Introducing #ONE2022 also known as OperationNoElections2022. The Twitter account which goes by the handle @NOElections2022 is spreading an alternative to voting — which is viewed as the main mode of civic engagement or political participation in use. Its first tweet, (above) #ONE2022 expressed infuriation about the leadership of the country. The answer? The clue is in its display name — simply boycotting the vote, catalyze Operation No Election.
After its first tweet, the account then retweets or quote tweets critiques of the government’s runaway corruption, weaponization of ethnicity, and politicians’ blatant cronyism masquerading as plans for smooth party succession. It tags or responds to tweets by the more recognizable activist accounts like @MutemiWaKiama and social justice outfits Maskani254, Kenya Tuitakayo and The Red Vests Movement. It also RTs the infamous NGO, KHRC. When it does pen its own tweets, the author accompanies it with video footage of electoral violence. The Matungu by-elections appear to be have cultivated the user’s idea to create the small but growing Twitter account. We see this in the following tweets:
In 12 tweets total, one can tell that the user behind the account draws a direct linkage between the nation’s mismanagement and culture of impunity, and political violence. They then produce the solution to these issues as boycotting of elections. One deduces that it sees the calculus being clear: that the math points to it as an ideological imperative; boycotting as resistance. And their cause would be justified because politicians whip up fears and hopes, promising roads and cash transfers, implementation of the TJRC Report and lifestyle audits, adherence to the Rule of Law and a cessation of looting of public coffers, but all for naught.
Malcolm X in his famous speech “The Ballot or the Bullet”, echoed the sentiments of the historically marginalized and the deliberately silenced. “Because this is the year of politics. This is the year when all of the white politicians are going to come into the Negro community. You never see them until election time. You can’t find them until election time” the orator stated on April 3rd 1964 in Cleveland[3]. Nine days later, on the 12th in Detroit, he elaborated in a similar speech “it’s also a political year. It’s the year when all of the white politicians will be back in the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which they don’t intend to keep. As they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, an explosion; and now we have the type of black man on the scene in America today — I’m sorry, Brother Lomax — who just doesn’t intend to turn the other cheek any longer.[4]” His most recognizable public speech, the Ballot or the Bullet contains calls to arms where civil disobedience efforts have failed. He turned the phrase on its head from Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 speech where he pronounced that the ballot is stronger than the bullet.
There is a more recent example in the form of Colin Kaepernick’s words: it would be hypocritical for me to vote. I’d said …. I was against oppression; against a system of oppression. I’m not going to show support for that system. And to me, the oppressor isn’t going to allow you to vote your way out of oppression[5]. This is contrary to the strategy of “changing a system from the inside” — should one even be let in at all, systems of oppression only want to eat you up. Your actions thereafter produce two outcomes; either the institutions that prop up these structural barriers to equity consume you, or spit you out. Just ask P. L.O. Lumumba, John Githongo and even Boniface Mwangi. Perhaps voter abstention is the most audaciously hopeful and practical move could then make?
“The leaders do not work for Wanjiku, they are beholden to foreign interests and the private sector; have mortgaged the country to loan sharks. This time will not be different. They have shown their allegiances time and time again; ergo we will not vote” is the reasoning that could be extrapolated from the account. To make sure, I reached out the person behind the account, Otieno Ombok. The veteran activist admitted that he started the Twitter account to “propel thoughts to consciousness.” He added eloquently and succinctly that “enfranchisement and disenfranchisement in citizenship is the trickery and mockery of callous imperialists hidden in democracy.[6]” His quote was so reminiscent of the W.E.B. Du Bois’ indictment of his own government.
In Du Bois’ missive of frustration titled “I won’t vote”, he registered his discontent with the current system as it stood in the United States. He echoed the sentiment that many citizens from around the globe have. He painfully observed that “the weight of our taxation is unbearable and rests mainly and deliberately on the poor. This Administration is dominated and directed by wealth and for the accumulation of wealth. It runs smoothly like a well-organized industry and should do so because industry runs it for the benefit of industry. Corporate wealth profits as never before in history. We turn over the national resources to private profit and have few funds left for education, health or housing.[7]” These issues (graft, state capture, cronyism and other features of our kleptocracy) are also a cause of frustration of Kenyan citizens. In addition they care deeply about the high taxes and heavy indebtedness to foreign powers and bi- or multi-national institutions that leaves barely enough for social welfare needs.
This discontent has led many to make the decision to reject their so-called civic duty to participate in the electoral decision-making process that legitimizes a government’s leadership. There are two kinds of such voter passivity: that of political apathy and of political alienation. Political apathy is characterized by disinterest or apathy towards politics or political processes.
As for alienation, noted political science scholar Marvin E. Olsen described the concept as “attitudes of estrangement from the political system.” He further identified that the concept branched into two categories: political incapability and political estrangement. The difference between the two being that the former is forced upon the electorate by their surroundings and circumstances; while the latter is the voter’s own choice. Another difference is that the former is common among those who are of particularly disadvantaged social status, while the latter is prevalent among the ‘old middle class’[8].
In political science, the two concepts are not to be confused with political fatigue. This fatigue falls under the umbrella of political apathy. It occurs when the electorate has been forced to vote too many times in a short period of time. Examples include Kenya’s runoff/fresh election, the UK which voted three times in four years, and countries which require policy questions to be decided by referenda.
All of these states of diminished interest in voting are signs of a struggling democracy, where citizens do not enthusiastically participate elections or even barazas. Malcolm X in his April 12th address spoke of being fed up of trickery, lies and false promises from politicians. He also drew the connection between these untruths and the disillusionment, disenchantment and dissatisfaction of the electorate[9]. Operation No Elections 2022 may well be at this stage, and they are gaining momentum as an organic movement, judging by the vibrant WhatsApp group Ombok runs.
What Malcolm X advocated in his speech was an approach to politics centred on using the ballot as a weapon, like a bullet, to achieve systemic change[10]. Then there is my reading of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Elections: A Trap for Fools”[11]. In my view, Sartre is lamenting at the manner in which voters are reduced to voting-machines, switched on and off when the time for polling comes around. This thingification of citizens occurs when they are defined by a set of rights and responsibilities of voting in an election, recognizable only through their relationship with the State and its institutions. He goes on to say “The state makes citizens out of them by giving them, for example, the right to vote once every four years, on condition that they meet certain very general requirements — to be French, to be over twenty-one — which do not really characterize any of them. From this point of view all citizens, whether they were born in Perpignan or in Lille, are perfectly identical.[12]” This thingification into voting-robots may also be enough to alienate one from participating in such a decision-making process every few years; like the warm duvet you only take out in the cold months before putting it back again once the weather turns more favourable. Sartre felt that when he voted, he abdicated his power, rather than the act of voting in “the lobby of a school or town hall” empowering him. He restated his observation once more, summarizing his article — “Now, these citizens, identical as they are and fabricated by the law, disarmed and separated by mistrust of one another, deceived but aware of their impotence, can never, as long as they remain serialized, form that sovereign group from which, we are told, all power emanates — the People. As we have seen, they have been granted universal suffrage for the purpose of atomizing them and keeping them from forming groups”. Reader, that viewpoint would be enough to disillusion you too, would it not?
Du Bois’ philosophy boiled down to this quote: Is the refusal to vote in this phony election a counsel of despair? No, it is dogged hope. It is hope that if [millions] of voters refrain from voting …. because of their own accord …. this might make the …. people ask how much longer this …. farce can proceed without even a whimper of protest….” It appears that the growing twitter account and the grumblings of those who are disenchanted espouse the very same philosophy as the greats Malcolm X and W.E.B. Du Bois. In the former’s famous phrase “freedom by any means necessary”, it could also mean passiveness or absenteeism as another tool of subversion, besides liberty or death. It should ideally serve to convict the consciences of the complacent. We shall watch the space and observe voter turnout next year.
Even so, what other options can we hope for? From popular discourse in this country, many view abstention from voting as a non-option, voting for independent candidates and smaller, lesser known parties is also frowned upon. Voting third party invokes the prevailing sentiment in the country that is: voting for a third party is “throwing away your vote”. In Du Bois’ ‘I won’t vote’, he began “In 1956, I shall note vote. I have not registered”. Further on in his letter, he wrote that even should there be a third party on the ballot, “few will hear its appeal because it will have almost no opportunity to take part in the campaign and explain its platform. If a voter organizes or advocates for a third party he may be accused of seeking to overthrow the government….[13]” This is the same in Kenya.
However, a more realistic outlook, besides voting third party when dissatisfied with the options presented, is to push for reform. Reform the 14 day rule for hearing presidential election petitions and for campaign financing laws and regulations to be enacted. Participate in social accountability activities and push for lifestyle audits as well as rigorous institutional and social vetting of leaders vying for office.
[1] In Kenya, BBI is one factor which could cause people to reject the election date as it stands. COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli proclaimed that should BBI fail to become law before the 2022 poll, they should be postponed by a year. “If there’s is no BBI we will postpone elections. It will not be the leaders… it is us who got problems. No BBI no election and that I can tell you for free” the union leader warned.
[2] Another possible reason for calling for a postponement or outright boycott could be the fact that security agencies have raised alarm over intelligence reports about potential threats of politically instigated violence in the coming election year. The interior ministry spoke of the risk of politically affiliated groups and criminal elements who may seek to “infiltrate and abuse” the bodaboda sector. Interior PS Karanja Kibicho informed that there is active “formation of some criminal activities across the country, and the anchor… the focal point is bodaboda where they are tending to become a law unto themselves because of the incitement they are getting from the political actors.”
[3] http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/malcolm_x_ballot.html
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zLQLUpNGsc
[5] Colin Kaepernick explains why he didn’t vote in election, would be ‘hypocritical’, CBSSports, November 14th 2016. Available at https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-didnt-vote-in-election-would-be-hypocritical/
[6] WhatsApp conversation held between the author and Ombok on July 8th, 2021.
[7] Dubois, The Nation , 20 October 1956.availble at https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/i-wont-vote/
[8] Two Categories of Political Alienation, Marvin E. Olsen, Indiana University. Available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/2575027
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zLQLUpNGsc
[10] Malcolm X’s legendary speech: “The Ballot or the Bullet (annotations and subtitles). Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zLQLUpNGsc
[11] Elections: A Trap for Fools, Jean-Paul Sartre, New Indictor, November 4–17 1980. It is an abridged version of an article which appeared in Les Temps Modernes no. 318, Jan. 1973.
[12] Elections: A Trap for Fools, Jean-Paul Sartre, New Indictor, November 4–17 1980. It is an abridged version of an article which appeared in Les Temps Modernes no. 318, Jan. 1973.
[13] “I Won’t Vote”, Dubois, The Nation, 20 October 1956. Available at https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/i-wont-vote/
