Kenya Elections 2007 Continued:-comments

Good morning Mr Cudjoe,

Thank you for taking the time to write to me. It is a pleasure to read from you.
First of all congratulations on the excellent work you are doing with www.imanighana.com and www.africanliberty.org. I have taken a quicklook and will be back to have a deeper look. It is interesting to read such thought provoking commentary from across our continent.Congratulation also on starting a blog. I am a firm believer in blogs and I am alwayshappy to come across another African one.

Thank you for forwarding Edwin’s essay. I had come across it on one of the forums in which I participate. No doubt you have been followingthe debate his piece generated.
My thoughts on Edwin’s piece are mixed. His collection of the facts is useful. The analysis is not that useful. There is what I feel is a underlying bias against Odinga and Pro-Kibaki which would be fine if he were not trying to present this as a neutral piece.

For example, he skims over the fact that Kibaki has been in the executive since independence. He is entrenched in a system that grew increasingly corrupt. Secondly, he fondly claims brotherhood with Kibakias fellow economists yet fails to point out that Kibaki was Minister of Finance in the 1980’s under Moi when the country was bleed dry.

Contrast this with his analysis of Odinga as a triablist who brings the Luo vote and not much else to the table. This is nonsense. Of the all the serious presidential candidates Odinga is the only one who represents a Nairobi seat in parliament. Each and every other presidential candidate represents a seat in their tribal area. Odinga’s seat, Langata, is the most diverse in the country, ethically it containsall the tribes, and economically it contains huge slums such as Kibera and large country estates such as Karen.

This election was an economic choice in some respects yes, however it was an election really between continuity and change. If you want an image to carry with you about the pre election period then take this one; 5 years after Kenyans finally managed to get rid of the Moi dictatorship and entrusted Kibaki with the responsibility to lead the revival of the country from the top, Kibaki and Moi joined forces praising one another and attacking Odinga. They say you should judgea man by his friends.

I could go on and on dissecting this essay. It is not neutral, it downplays serious issues and skirts over major points in favour ofKibaki and against Odinga. The essay also does not touch the CENTRAL and KEY point to the mayhem we have seen these past few weeks. Despite the long term problems this violence was sparked by the fact that Kibaki stolen this election and
installed himself in StateHouse. It is that simple. The will of the people was ignored, the people revolted. What was he thinking? Thatwe are back in 1987 when Moi would steal an election and Kenyans would just go home? I have sat in meetings in the past few weeks with members of Kibaki’s inner circle who all admit that even they do not know who wonthe election. Where then does he get his legitimacy? He has none.

What commentators like me are saying is not that Kibaki lost and Odinga won. What we are saying is that WE DON’T KNOW. No one knows who won this election such was the incompetence of the Electoral Commission of Kenya. Until that is resolved Kenya will remain unbalanced.

It is good to see you have James Shikwati on your team of writers. His take on this will be interesting and will offer insight.

Thank you for getting in touch and many blessings in all yourventures.

Daudi@mentalacrobactics.com

reply

Edwin responds to Daudi's
Submitted by frankie on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 11:50.
Daudi. I respond to some of your comments below.
Daudi: Contrast this with his analysis of Odinga as a triablist who brings theLuo vote and not much else to the table. This is nonsense. Of the allthe serious presidential candidates Odinga is the only one whorepresents a Nairobi seat in parliament.

Edwin:Many of my Luo colleagues all go to register to vote in Kibera where Mr. Odinga gets his support from. Plus the slums still display the ethnic segregation that the colonists started whereby the Luo's were placed in Kibera, the Luhya's in Kangemi, the Kikuyu in Dagoreti. Other slums like Huruma and Mathare are a bit mixed thus explaining the violence in those slums as contrasted to the relative peace in Dagoreti and Kangemi.

Daudi: I could go on and on dissecting this essay. It is not neutral, it downplays serious issues and skirts over major points in favour of Kibaki and against Odinga.

Edwin:I don't think that I downplayed serious issues but this is testament to the complexity of the situation on the ground such as no hope in sight for the many young people without jobs and politics based on ethnic polarization. Not mentioning them is not the same as downplaying them.

Daudi: The essay also does not touch the CENTRAL and KEY point to the mayhem we have seen these past few weeks. Despite the long term problems this violence was sparked by the fact that Kibaki stolen this election and installed himself in StateHouse. It is that simple. The will of the people was ignored, the people revolted. What was he thinking? That we are back in 1987 when Moi would steal an election and Kenyans would just go home? I have sat in meetings in the past few weeks with members of Kibaki's inner circle who all admit that even they do not know who won the election. Where then does he get his legitimacy? He has none.

Edwin: It is not known if Kibaki won or stole the election. Information I have indicates that PNU did rig but whether ODM won the elections is another matter. For example, it is claimed that the overnight tallying process before the announcement of results was signed and agreed to by ODM agents. When they realized they were loosing, they then went on a strategy of frustrating the announcement of results. I must add that I cannot vouch for the veracity of this assertion but there are people saying this. On the other hand, Kibaki had Kivuitu read the results and was sworn in as president literally 5 minutes later in a closed ceremony at the state house gives the impression of someone who was hell bent on stealing the election. Interestingly, EU observers and the local team have only given two constituencies where rigging by tampering with the tallying process have been proven i.e. Molo and Juja. Could it be that Kibaki actually won the election? But due to the lack of credibility in the whole exercise, the only way confidence can be restored in the presidential elections is by conducting a rerun.

Jerry Y. Takis- takisfam@yahoo.com
Submitted by frankie on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 09:32.
Regarding the subject article by Edwin Nyanducha, I'd like to congratulate your professional journalism since this is the first article I've seen which makes any sense of the violence in Kenya.
The only question I had remaining was whether the ethnic groups and violence were divided among religious lines. I noticed that that one of the groups attacked was in an Assembly of God church. I know also that the main divisions are between Orthodox Christians, Protestants, Muslim and other original religions to Kenya.
Jerry Y. Takis- takisfam@yahoo.com

Edwin Nyanducha, edwin.nyanducha@gmail.com
Submitted by frankie on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 09:34.
Thanks a lot for the warm compliments. Such feedback always gives one inspiration to keep writing. I note that you have congratulated me for professional journalism. Actually, I am not a journalist but a consultant concentrating on financial and economic matters though I have an avid interest and appreciation of history which aids in making sense of political issues.
You have asked whether there are divisions along ethnic lines in the country. Generally no. However, the Muslims are a sort of vocal minority (ranging anywhere between 8% to 15%) as there are no accurate statistics who are viewed in a very suspicious light by the Christians who are the majority. But amongst the Christians, the key divisions are along tribal lines due to economic and cultural differentiations amongst the various groupings.
Edwin Nyanducha