Sympathy is a very powerful force in politics and the mood on the ground in Kenya at the moment is a lot of sympathy for Raila Odinga whom many Kenyans believe had the presidency stolen from him in a most crude manner.
That is for those who have yet to be victims of the anti-Kikuyu and anti-PNU violence sweeping across the country like wild fire.
The fascinating thing here is that there is sympathy from people who only a few days ago were greatly opposed to a Raila presidency.
For instance my impeccable source on the ground in Naivasha puts it thus;
Things here are okay and its back to business as usual ... the difference is that you will notice that people are still in small groups talking. Most them despite being PNU supporters agree that what we have here is a stolen presidency.
So what happened to change people's minds?
Part of the reason is the extremely obvious manner in which this rigging was done. One Kenyan commented to this blogger; "Why didn't Kibaki get some rigging tips from Moi? Moi never used to get caught and it was impossible to prove anything."
After some strange results in parts of Western Kenya, Ukmbani (Eastern province) Kibaki cronies held back Meru results and simply waited for Raila votes to come in and then doctored Kibakis so that they were more. It was vote rigging done in the most obvious manner in full view of the world.
This is why gthe decision by the International community and especially America to retract their statement recognizing Kibaki's win is significant. It will save a lot of innocent Kenyan lives and send the right message to other power hungry despots in Africa who equate the lives of their citizens to that of mere chickens and simply want to hang onto power at all costs.
See earlier post article on International community retracting support for Kibaki.
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