Civil servants were ordered back to work as of today (Friday) and head
counts were scheduled. Schools will resume on Monday. A new message from the
Canadian High Commission advises caution and to avoid protest groups and
demonstrations. The people conducted themselves in an exemplary fashion during
an orderly & peaceful vote. The subsequent mess of the tallies has added a
lot of confusion and anger. ‘Bugs’ suddenly discovered in the in-house programme
that multiplied spoilt votes eight fold, people refused the right to vote even
with ID cards and passports, and polling officers handing out multiple ballots
and failing to stamp some as authentic. The people had to vote for six offices
and the ballot boxes were colour coded. Each ballot had a long list of names,
photographs and symbols for the illiterate. It was quite intimidating and
confusing for many. The lawyers will be busy for months to come.
At the moment it looks as if Kenyatta will make it with a 50% +1 overall
majority and a majority in at least 24 of the 47 counties. His rival, Odinga has
suffered greatly from years of detention under Moi and the ‘stealing’ of the
last presidential vote five years ago. He got 98% of votes in his home province
of Nyanza and 68% in Kakamega, but it is not likely to be enough.
Both Kenyatta and his running mate Ruto will be on trial at the Hague in
July. They ran a successful propaganda campaign urging their supporters to prove
to ‘the West’ that Kenyans are masters in their own house. Unfortunately the
reality will not be pretty.
No comments:
Post a Comment