Update on Kenyan Elections

I have been waiting to update you on the election because we were waiting to see what would happen. It was very hard for George to be here while everything was happening in Kenya. We don't have cable (or DSTV) here so the only access we had to the news was online. The elections occurred on Monday the 4th. The day was very peaceful, other than a couple random skirmishes. Everyone waited to see who would win... Raila Odinga or Uhuru Kenyatta. In order to be declared the winner, one had to get at least 50% of the votes plus one. You might be thinking, duh.... one of them had to get 50%. Well, there were a bunch of people running. I think around eight. Odinga and Kenyatta were the front runners by far. If either one didn't get 50% (plus one!), they would go for a run off in April.

The tallying process was a HUGE mess. The IEBC (the group responsible for announcing the results) encountered many problems. The electronic system for voter ID didn't work forcing them to go back to a manual vote. People waited in line for hours (some over 12). There were reports of many wrongs - hiding votes, adding votes, refusing to report votes, etc. One truck was found full of blank ballots. It was a disaster. By Friday, the IEBC announced that Kenyatta won. He received 4099 votes over 50%. No run off needed, he would be the president.

Raila Odinga's camp has petitioned the court challenging the results. The IEBC has refused to present the evidence to support their announcement. It is still a mess, but I believe the courts won't over turn the results and Kenyatta will be president. One big problem facing Kenya now is Kenyatta is awaiting trial by the ICC for crimes against humanity stemming from the post election violence in 2007. Many Western countries may pull their support from Kenya and levy sanctions against the country due to his win. Time will tell what will happen in the long run.

The good news is that people have remained calm and peaceful. Though the process was full of problems, people seem to be accepting the results, despite their personal feelings. Our house was hoping for a Raila win, so we are sad here. We'll keep watching the news to see how things keep on developing.