01 02 03 Africa Expat Wives Club: Post election ponderings 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Post election ponderings

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After a week of uncertainty during an overly complicated election process, Kenya has a new president, Uhuru Kenyatta.  His election win has already been disputed by the main opposition party who claim that there was vote rigging once again.  This time (for now), the dispute is following legal channels.  The case will be presented to the Supreme Court today, rather than taken to the streets, thank goodness.

On asking people around and about in my neighbourhood, it seems that there are lots of disillusioned voters out there who feel cheated.  Some vow never to vote again, since the outcome in Kenya's elections are never fair.  They forsee Uhuru Kenyatta in power for at least the next 10 years.  Shame that there is still bad feeling after an 86% turn-out of voters who stood in the hot sun,  all queuing for six hours and more to cast their ballots.

We have to hope that Raila Odinga is happy with the Supreme court's judgment that is due to be delivered within the next 14 days.  In the meantime, I wonder if a 'behind the scenes' alliance or agreement will magically materialize and serve to appease him.

I met a Pakistani taxi driver the other day.  He said, "all politicians are corrupt.  In my country, they are not 99% corrupt, they are 100% corrupt. So much corruption everywhere."  But he shrugged his shoulders and sounded resigned, almost accepting.

The international community now has some serious diplomatic backtracking to do, since - before the Kenya vote - they rather rashly vocalised their fears about the prospect of a Kenyan President (and vice president too) who will be answering crimes against humanity charges at The Hague.  Meanwhile there's oil in Kenya, there's business and the show must go on..

Above all, Kenyans should be credited with the fact that there was absolutely no violence (bad luck CNN, BBC and Sky News - cameras at the ready).

Now we expats must tuck into our year-long supplies of UHT milk and hope that Kenya continues to be a fabulous place, not because of but in spite of its politics....

A high point in this whole thing: - Kenya's first ever televised political debates where politicians were unmasked and laid bare for a moment in the face of 'hard talk' or tricky-to-answer questions.

Another bonus: - Kenya has a fabulous new constitution so whoever is running the country will have to follow the new rules.

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