Midnight is the beginning of a day, not the end

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

14 May 2017

My brother once missed his flight because he went to the airport a whole day late! The flight was schedule to depart at 00:15am on September 20. He reported at 9pm on the night of September 20 only to find the airline’s desk closed. Airport staff informed him that the flight had departed the previous night! He should have been there at 9pm on September 19.

I remembered that story when reading a newspaper report that quoted Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Commissioner Roselyn Kwamboka saying: “We shall process requests from independent candidates until midnight on May 8”. That got me wondering whether she meant that the work will stop on May 7 or May 8.

You see, midnight is a tricky time because it is the moment of transition from one day to the next. Some years ago, car insurance policies used to expire at midnight on a given day. That would create serious disputes between traffic police officers and motorists. If your policy says it expires at midnight on May 14 2017, is it valid today?

By international convention, midnight is written as 00:00:00am. This means that it is the beginning of the new day – it is NOT the end of the old one. Therefore, an insurance policy that expires at midnight on May 14 runs out at 00:00:00am on May 14. In other words, it will not be valid at 00:00:01am or any other time after that!

If you find that difficult to appreciate: think about how we celebrate the coming of the New Year. We wait up to 11:59pm on December 31; then we start the countdown… 11:59:57pm – 11:59:58pm – 11:59:59pm. And at the stroke of 00:00:00am we shout “Happy New Year”.

In other words, we all agree that 00:00:00am is January 1st.

By this argument, it then appears that when IEBC Commissioner Kwamboka said “midnight on May 8” she was referring to the night of May 7 / 8. That is, the work of processing independent candidates was supposed to stop one second after 11:59:59pm on May 7^th.

If she had intended to say that it will stop at 11:59:59pm on May 8, then all she needed to say was “until May 8” and leave out the time. When stated that way, it is clear to everyone that requests received on May 8 will be accepted and processed.

A similar problem arises regarding the expiry of telephone airtime. One the mobile phone companies states only the date without specifying the time.  Thus when you ask for your balance, the reply says “sh100.00; expiry date 15/05/2017”. So: will this balance be valid tomorrow or will it expire tonight?

This question has led many food processors to be very careful in how the express expiry dates of their products. Instead of writing the popular phrase “sell-by date”, some write “use before” and others the more elaborate “use before end of”.

All in all, it is clear that time can be very confusing. For that reason, the drafters of our constitution felt it necessary to clarify the matter in article 259(5). I recommend you go read it.