Uhuru
Kenyatta is set to become the fourth president of Kenya in an election
that smirked of too many similarities to the bungled 2007 presidential
elections. But if you are a Jubilee coalition supporter hold off your
order for that cold Tusker and don’t even think of putting those goat
ribs over a charcoal fire just yet because there are too many
uncertainties that still linger in the air.
In a previous post
I had already pointed out many of the question marks that have to be
scribbled at the end of most paragraphs recording the major events of
the last five days. Yep it was only five short days but why is it that
to many Kenyans it seemed like an eternity?
When those who like
to analyze how presidential campaigns are won sit down to figure out how
the son of Jomo did it, one name will have to feature prominently. That
of William Ruto, his running mate (pictured above, on your right, with
Uhuru) and now deputy president-elect. Those who know this man who
barely 20 years ago used to hang out at “jobless corner” (a hangout for
hungry frustrated job seekers that is opposite the Hilton hotel in
Nairobi) will tell you that he is a crafty political player who is not
even trusted by the supporters of the president elect. How he even
successfully put together the two main warring tribes in the 2007
elections together still baffles many. This blogger predicted many times
that the alliance would not hold and that he would never deliver
Kalenjin votes with the wounds of the last elections still unhealed. But
not only has it held together but it has managed to win Uhuru a mind
boggling share of the massive Rift Valley vote against all expectations.
It
would have been nice to have had a non-controversial credible election
to see how this contest would have really turned out. As it is we will
never know because whatever happens next the circumstances have changed
drastically and forever.
One of the most fascinating aspects to
come out of this election is the reaction of many people in Nyanza to
the results. Many are blaming Raila for not having a clear strategy in
his entire campaign and repeated references are being made to the CORD
nominations which went badly wrong in Nyanza with what most people saw
as a deliberate attempt to try and force candidates on them.
However
observant political analysts will sympathize with Raila who has been on
almost permanent campaign mode since 2002 and probably earlier. Fatigue
and exhaustion were clearly visible in him during the campaigns and
there is no doubt that this greatly affected his bid this time round. In
many public meetings his voice sounded hoarse and tired and he even
babbled at times and fell asleep in clear sight of the cameras at one
church function. This was in sharp contrast to Uhuru who appeared much
more energetic, sharper and eloquent in his delivery.
The big question now is what happens next. Regular readers of my raw notes
will know that several times in the past 4 month or so I gave the
unfolding scenario as the most likely outcome of these elections. Just
like I did for the 2007 general elections. I am currently focusing on
plenty of interesting developments (some alarming) that could emerge out
of the current mess we find ourselves in as a country and you can read
them all HERE.
My heart goes out to all those ordinary Kenyans whose lives have
already been badly affected by these elections because business has been
down with all the tension. Some of them rely on their daily earnings to
put food on the table and have therefore gone hungry in recent days. I
hate to imagine what will happen to them in the days to come as the
situation in Kenya becomes even more tense with court cases and
allegations of rigging.
Do remember to say a prayer for the motherland.
…Only challenges that have been overcome
Endebess constituency deputy returning officer opening the briefcase containing the disputed results at the OCPD office, Kitale. In this particular criminal case, one of the major presidential candidates had been given 61,000 votes against a total of 29,000 registered voters for Endebess constituency.
The returning officer was arrested yesterday. However, the police aided her escape at 4am this morning. The RO has since gone underground.
Get more details HERE
There are many instances yesterday and today when I have had déjà vu moments and imagined myself back in 2008.
You will remember that year when Kenya was burning with thousands (the official government figures stubbornly remained in the hundreds) of innocent people killed, raped and injured African leaders rushed to Nairobi to try and help. When they arrived the official government position was that these busy people had come to Kenya to have a cup of tea. Yep. That’s all. There was really no problem and things were super fine in Kenya.
Flash forward to March 2013 and there is really no problem in Kenya, is there? Apart from a few sore losers complaining when they have sensed defeat early.
Sample the following;
• A deliberate concerted effort was made to ensure that the presidential results were tallied and announced first to avoid the tension that build up in 2008. And yet on this Thursday evening after Kenyans voted, most results for governors, senators etc are out but the presidential ones are still not. Maybe tomorrow or perhaps Monday if the worst comes to the worst. But hey there is no problem in Kenya that is within the law (stipulates that results must be released within 7 days) and we love peace and those minor “challenges” are not things you point out when you want to maintain the peace.
• There are a handful of constituencies countrywide where the votes cast were more than the registered voters. Take the ongoing case of Endebes (see picture), 61,000 votes on favour of one presidential candidate were discovered. The returning officer was arrested yesterday but disappeared from police custody in the early hours of this morning. But hey I must have missed the fact that those Endebes votes were NOT counted in the final tally so there is really no problem with the Kenya elections.
• One of the leading coalitions submitted a protest in writing citing several grounds and duly signed to the IEBC with but this evening the IEBC chairman had a press conference and said that he had NOT received any complaints reminding those with issues to put it in writing. So there is really no problem with the Kenya elections we love peace and we do not need any hate speech to disturb the peace.
• The results that were beamed to Kenyans since Monday evening which this blogger fell for and even started looking for reasons as to why one of the candidates was suddenly so surprisingly popular (I speculated that he had really endeared himself to the youth) were quietly abandoned after what the IEBC chairman told Kenyans was a technical hitch with the servers. Those results, several eagle-eyed Kenyans noticed were a statistical impossibility. How does one of the candidates totals increase progressively by an exact percentage, consistently and constantly between the 600,000 mark up to the 2.7 million mark? But hey, sh** happens and there is always a first in human history. After all there was a time dangerously recently) when people were convinced that mechanical flight by humans was impossible. What is a statistical impossibility compared to that? And so there is absolutely no problem with the Kenyan elections.
• Almost 300,000 was the number of rejected votes when the IEBC was using the electronic tallying system as the votes counted hit the 5million mark, a BIG number. But when IEBC switched to a manual tallying system the total number of rejected votes was 39000 at the 4.6million mark. Where did all those spoilt votes go? Some enemies of peace in Kenya claim that the final tally of rejected votes compared to the electronic reports is more proof that a virus was indeed manipulating the rejected votes tally. But the IBEC chairman has assured Kenyans that the story of hacking and viruses is NOT true. “Rumours” he called them and we believe him and that is why you need to know that there is no problem with the Kenyan elections. What problem?
• There is a major blackout on any substantial news on the elections in Kenya. What we are getting on our TV sets are just results and more results. Including the kind of statistical results that others would laugh at us for swallowing hook line and sinker without noting anything amiss. But that is exactly what peace loving Kenyans want. And so this blogger joins millions of others Kenyans to tell the whole world including Kenyans scattered in every corner of the globe that there is absolutely NO problem with the Kenyan elections. Despite all these points which are the work of an inciter (who else would use their brain to think about such things when they know how Kenyans slaughtered each other in 2008) I again emphasize for the umpteenth time that there is no problem in Kenya and certainly there is no problem with our super free and super fair elections. Just ignore sore losers whose sell by date has arrived and they are yet to realize.
Yes, this was penned by Kumekucha himself, and NO you are not reading the wrong blog. And NO he was NOT paid by any of the presidential candidates. If you think that Kumekucha sounded scared writing this post, you might just be right and you might want to read what he has to say about this issue privately when he is not scared.
