TEACHING-EMPOWERING-MENTORING-BUILDING OPPORTUNITY Mission: to partner with individuals and communities in Western Kenya to support entrepreneurial activities, education and health through training programmes, scholarships, water and sanitation projects

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Birth of a nation

The nomination process is finished for candidates for the first election under the new Constitution. Many, many problems emerged, but the election is proceeding with optimism that even a flawed process is better than no process. Even though many of the old guard, accused of corruption over decades, is still standing for office, we are hoping that there will be a new mind-set.

A recent article said: 'There isn't a single sane person who thinks the party primaries .... even pass the most primitive test. Missing, or stuffed ballots, rogue returning officers, dictatorship by party bosses, blatant nepotism and tribalism, vote-buying, daylight violence, voodoo math in vote counting, and false results made nonsense of the exercise. It was a total sham.

Yet out of this there is a slate of candidates. Reporters are telling it like it is. Unfortunately a newspaper costs fifty shillings, almost half a day's pay for the struggling rural communities, but we hope the opinions will percolate. We have passed along rural roads lined with people waiting for  a politician to arrive and give them a handout of fifty or a hundred shillings for their vote. Our black SUV has often been mistaken for a campaigning vehicle (until they see the faces) We want to say to them: take his (or her) money and vote for the one you want.

There is one woman Presidential candidate and many running for other positions. Some elders of a community in the north have been telling their people that if they vote for a woman it will bring a curse on the country.

Truly birth pangs.

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