Kenyans and The River Between
October 25 2017 By Abiodun Giwa
Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, Ruto, celebrating their reelection later annulled by the Supreme Court over irregularities.
Will the number of the dead over the election in Kenya rise beyond 12 or 30 on Thursday as the country braces for a repeat election?
Many observers are already skeptical that a repeat election will hold, due to what they describe as seeming fogginess, over the country's readiness.
The electoral commission has said the repeat election will hold as scheduled on Thursday, October 26. But a high court in Nairobi has declared the process for the appointment of returning officers for the election as illegal, and a little short of completely stopping the election, news reports reveal.
The high court judge says he cannot stop the election because that there has been no request for him to stop the election, and that parties to the court hearing can proceed to ask for a separate relief to stop the election, based on illegal appointment of returning officers.
Kenyas are waiting to see what will happen in their country on Thursday, just as the world is watching developments in the country concerning the repeat election. The question observers are asking is that has n't the election itself been jeopardized with the high court judge declaration of the appointment of returning officers for the election illegal?
Amid the development, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenya will not allow anarchy. The statement draws another question about whether Kenyatta's government has done enough to avoid anarchy, since irregularities in a presidential election, traced to the electoral commission's officials incompetence is enough reason for trouble.
The government is supporting a repeat election by same officers from the first election, while the opposition insists on changing the officers from the first election to avoid a repeat of the same mistakes from the first election. The opposition candidates have pulled out of the repeat election citing lack of assurance there will be no repeat of mistakes from the first election.
And so if a repeat election holds on Thursday, only Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy will be on the ballot. Some people have asked why does Kenya needs an election with Kenyatta and his deputy as only candidates, and that why can't Kenyatta and his deputy just declare themselves as elected and then continue in office?
Many observers see the repeat election without the opposition as waste of resources and likely illegal. Many people think that the government ought to allow room for agreement with the opposition over the composition of the electoral commission's personnel for a free and fair election.
Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition in a statement urged his supporters to be peaceful and to recognize that both themselves and members of the ruling party will suffer the same fate from the government's dictatorship. He told the supporters to avoid street protest and demonstration on Thursday, because according to him the government has sent out its police to kill them, and gave as 30 the number of Kenyans already killed by the police over the elections.
The police said in a reaction that only 12 Kenyans have lost their lives over the elections. Odinga's statement seems to have told his supporters to avoid the evil of the Makuyu and the Kameno ridges, the tribal disconnect contained in Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's "The River Between".
Many observers are already skeptical that a repeat election will hold, due to what they describe as seeming fogginess, over the country's readiness.
The electoral commission has said the repeat election will hold as scheduled on Thursday, October 26. But a high court in Nairobi has declared the process for the appointment of returning officers for the election as illegal, and a little short of completely stopping the election, news reports reveal.
The high court judge says he cannot stop the election because that there has been no request for him to stop the election, and that parties to the court hearing can proceed to ask for a separate relief to stop the election, based on illegal appointment of returning officers.
Kenyas are waiting to see what will happen in their country on Thursday, just as the world is watching developments in the country concerning the repeat election. The question observers are asking is that has n't the election itself been jeopardized with the high court judge declaration of the appointment of returning officers for the election illegal?
Amid the development, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenya will not allow anarchy. The statement draws another question about whether Kenyatta's government has done enough to avoid anarchy, since irregularities in a presidential election, traced to the electoral commission's officials incompetence is enough reason for trouble.
The government is supporting a repeat election by same officers from the first election, while the opposition insists on changing the officers from the first election to avoid a repeat of the same mistakes from the first election. The opposition candidates have pulled out of the repeat election citing lack of assurance there will be no repeat of mistakes from the first election.
And so if a repeat election holds on Thursday, only Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy will be on the ballot. Some people have asked why does Kenya needs an election with Kenyatta and his deputy as only candidates, and that why can't Kenyatta and his deputy just declare themselves as elected and then continue in office?
Many observers see the repeat election without the opposition as waste of resources and likely illegal. Many people think that the government ought to allow room for agreement with the opposition over the composition of the electoral commission's personnel for a free and fair election.
Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition in a statement urged his supporters to be peaceful and to recognize that both themselves and members of the ruling party will suffer the same fate from the government's dictatorship. He told the supporters to avoid street protest and demonstration on Thursday, because according to him the government has sent out its police to kill them, and gave as 30 the number of Kenyans already killed by the police over the elections.
The police said in a reaction that only 12 Kenyans have lost their lives over the elections. Odinga's statement seems to have told his supporters to avoid the evil of the Makuyu and the Kameno ridges, the tribal disconnect contained in Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's "The River Between".
Comment Box is loading comments...
