Digital Elections and the Problem of Liquid Trust in the Kenyan Electoral Management Institution

Abstract

This article is inspired by studies on digital trust at the workplace. The article seeks to bridge the gap created by the lack of explanations in academic studies and theorising on why, even though elections can be held in African countries using technology and digital tools, the outcomes continue to be contested, as in the past. Blame is laid on the electoral institution, the people running the institution, and the technology applied during the election process. The study provides background regarding the Kenyan context, and benefits from a wide theorisation and generalisations taken from the literature on trust in the functions of institutions, people, and technology. The article also links these three in the broader framework of the project of digital trust at the workplace. It concludes that the holding of elections using digital technology did not yield the desired results of solidifying trust in the Kenyan electoral process and in the political domain as a whole. The context of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) involves liquid trust and a great deal of frustration, meaning that the decision to make use of technology does not necessarily lead to better results. Liquid trust is a type of trust which is short-lived, ephemeral, access-based, and dematerialised, while solid trust is an enduring and materialised type of trust. Modern liquid trust generates its other: the digital non-trustworthy or ethics-less design of a digital world.

Keywords:

• Kenyan elections
• digital elections
• digital citizen
• liquid trust
• Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission
• technology
• polarisation