Nairobi — Many should not have been surprised when the Commissioner of Police Major-General Hussein Ali turned up at the election headquarters of the Electoral Commission of Kenya at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre on Friday to address a news conference.

While ordinarily, this venue belongs to the ECK and is usually used by the Commission to announce election results and brief the media on other matters pertaining to elections, it is evident Ali had a different and urgent message that not only targeted the media, but also political parties and the general populace.

We want to congratulate Ali for we believe his message was apt and well timed because it was aimed at reminding Kenyans as actors in the on-going counting of the votes that after a General Election come the harder part for competitors and electors.

It is why Ali warned that all must respect the verdict of the electorate and that those who feel aggrieved by the results should seek legal redress.

It is why he asked winners to be magnanimous in victory and losers to be dignified in defeat.

Lastly, the Commissioner warned that those who broke the law before or after the plebiscite would be prosecuted because the end of polling does not mean electoral crimes are forgotten.

In other words, Ali was saying that after the General Election, a new phase begins and with that comes new responsibilities for the electors and the elected. The objective is to ensure that peace is maintained.

That is as it should be for if a winner were to celebrate in a manner that demeans the defeated, for example, that could be the spark that ignites a conflagration for at this time it is a high octane that obtains in the political arena and country as a whole.

Now the electorate was called upon on Thursday to carry out an audit of their Government as it has done every five years through a General Election.

But nothing could have prepared the electorate itself and the sitting Government for the scenarios that have been unfolding as the poll results have come in.

As voters stood in long and winding queues and occasionally complained about the slow pace of the process, none would have guessed they were about to dramatically and drastically change the political map and hand the new dispensation they have created a delicate job indeed.

It is as if the Kenyan voter waited patiently, peacefully in the queues to ensure that the process would not be disrupted so that he/she could not only give the Government a bloody nose, but make it known that he/she will not be taken for granted.

But having set in motion forces of change on a large scale, the electorate must be ready to be even more patient as the men and women who will be in charge of the new dispensation set about the business of governing and looking into the agenda the electorate has set for them.

Why do we say this? Because the results that have come so far are beginning to look like a political earthquake.

Never before have so many ministers been felled in one fell swoop.

President's allies swept aside

Indeed, never before has a sitting Cabinet been so decimated by the electorate after just one term in office. Never before have so many allies of a sitting president been swept aside by the power of the ballot.

With the electorate's work done, attention will shift on the man who is going to win the presidential poll and be tasked with taking the helm of the Kenyan ship of State for the next five years.

If that person is the sitting President Kibaki, his first task will be that of seeking new allies and forging new alliances to tackle his legislative agenda and implement electoral programme.

If Kibaki is President and knowing what befell his previous administration from Day One, then he will have to pull all the stops out to ensure that the new Cabinet will dedicate itself to the matters of running government, the legislative agenda and policy and not get enmeshed in squabbling and, and subsequently, derailment of governance.

If the new Head of State is Mr Raila Odinga, he will first of all have to deal with expectations from the ODM team that will have made his win possible. Are there enough jobs to go around and to the satisfaction of all?

Will he be called upon to create a bigger Cabinet than he would have wanted to because of the political exigencies of the time? And will not the possible falling out from the creation of Government serve to derail the realisation of his political, legislative and governance agenda?

In either scenario it is clear the responsibility of the electorate goes beyond the casting of the vote. It involves giving the men and women in power time to organise themselves to create the environment necessary to realise their objectives.

And just as the electorate has a responsibility after casting its vote so also do the leaders have a responsibility to the electorate after bagging its vote.

The Kenyan voter was increasingly frustrated by the Narc Government in which he/she invested a great deal of trust and hope because ministers pre-occupied themselves with squabbling and in-fighting and failed to deliver on their election promises.

Does the mauling of the Cabinet at the ballot reflect anger with the Government that was swelling within the populace as a result of its frustrations at the hands of Narc or burning desires to rid the political landscape of old faces and bring about a new dispensation or both?

Suffice to say there are useful lessons for the next government from the trials and tribulations of the one before it.

There is one issue which Ali did not address and which we addressed in these columns recently and which we feel we should revisit today and re-emphasise.The winner of this General Election must unite the country and rally it around the new agenda.

The majority of the people elect the winner, but he/she becomes the leader of the entire country, the protector of the minorities, and the comforter of the nation when it grieves. It is this that would best define a people's president or a people's servant as Raila and Mr Kalonzo Musyoka tagged themselves in the campaigns.