Kenyan Elections: March 4 2013

This should be the first in a series of posts I intend to write about the forthcoming general election.

On March 4 2013, Kenyans will march to the polling booths to elect, among others, , the President and her Deputy in a general election which, for many reasons, is a first.

For one, we have two main coalitions and the election of either will no doubt change the Country for a long time to come. For the most part also, these two coalitions were formed mainly by forces outside their control. The first Coalition is CORD (Coalition for/of Reforms and Democracy). The other one is Jubilee Alliance (Not to the surprise of anyone, a clown car of sorts) Don't take this to heart; to be fair to Jubilee Alliance, they have one thing in their favor: Numbers. At least its candidate for Deputy President William Ruto keeps on harping on that. 

It is also the first general election under the "new" constitution and because this 'new' Constitution creates 'new' offices such as Senators, Governors of the 47 counties and so forth. Kenyans we will be electing candidates to offices which never existed prior to the passing and adoption of this 'new' Constitution. The election is also a first, and for me an important first in the sense that, finally my dream- to call it what it is, my dream of having a President of my choice will come true, probably.

Let me digress a bit, at this point to make a point which has its own point to make. About 5 years ago, I, like millions of other Kenyans, cast their ballot to choose their President in the general election of 2007. The hopes of these millions were not unlike the hopes of many like me, then and now. But these hopes were dashed by the outright and shameful theft of votes perpetrated, for the benefit of the incumbent by the agents of the incumbent located in institutions which would, unknown to some of us, elect a President for us. I should add that the theft was, if not worse, most likely committed, with the knowledge of the incumbent (though I would have, the heavy evidentiary burden of proving  this allegation- which was their gameplan anyway), and/or those associated with the incumbent as the incumbent was then known. To dispute the facts, as I have presented them, would be same as saying that Post Election Violence that followed the elections, in fact, did not happen. So those who dispute these facts will have to look elsewhere for comfort. The devastating consequences of the announcement of the results of the Presidential election of the 2007 were because the election was mismanaged, votes were stolen, figures were plucked out of thin air and added the incumbent and so on and so forth. And that is what is so different this time round.


Fast forward. If not dead, most of these agents no longer are in the relevant state offices and institutions using state resources to craft ways of going over or around will of the people as collected from the ballot box. there have been immense and far reaching changes at many levels beginning with abolition and replacement of the ludicrous ludicrous Electoral Commission. An ineffective, incompetent Judiciary with an equally ludicrous track record of being at the service of the state has been replaced or rather is being replaced with individuals who understand why they are appointed judges. You have to properly understand your role as a Judge to competently, independently, impartially, fairly and lawfully discharge your judicial functions otherwise you are wasting ours and your Country's time serving in our Judiciary.

But what I will henceforth talk about in this blog will be who among the horses-to narrow the racetrack-the two leading horses (Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta will win the Presidential Election of March 4 2013. The bad news is not today.