At the beginning of August 2017, Kenyans elected not only a president but also new members of parliament, governors, and other representatives of the people. The greatest attention, however, was once again on the presidential election (as in 2013). It was not without conflict between residents, or between members of specific tribes. Coordinators of Slovak development cooperation projects in Kenya were closely monitoring the situation.
The incumbent head of state, Uhuru Kenyatta, again ran for another term on 8 August 2017. This 55-year-old son of a former president of Kenya (the first after independence from British colonial rule) promised the people a lot during the campaign. For example, he promised large infrastructure projects that were to be supported by China.
Neither ordinary local people nor diplomats in Kenya, but also we—humanitarian and development workers from the Slovak Republic—expected Kenyatta’s repeat victory. As with the previous two elections, it was not expected this time either that they would proceed in a fully democratic and peaceful way, or that a true people’s candidate would win. Post-election violence in slums and in the countryside
During the August election day, minor vote tampering occurred again, the system failed, and some vote counts were evaluated by people rather than machines. Uhuru Kenyatta won, and his long-time candidate Raila Odinga filed an appeal. Since the independent court in Kenya truly functions independently, to the surprise of the entire local and international public (and certainly to President Kenyatta’s surprise), the court annulled the election in early September 2017 and set a date for new elections in October 2017.
People reacted to the results with celebrations, but also with violent protests. According to the opposition, this involved as many as one hundred deaths, although the Kenyan police spoke of only ten fatalities. For Raila Odinga this was already the fourth attempt at the presidential seat, while his father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga unsuccessfully tried the same thing in 1992 and had been the face of Kenyan opposition for almost 40 years.
Across all of Kenya, tension between people increased. The seemingly modest measures in justice introduced by the incumbent president had nothing to do with democratic leadership of the country. They showed elements of dictatorship, which ultimately led to the point where opposition candidate Raila Odinga withdrew his candidacy and called voters to boycott. And so President Kenyatta effectively ran almost alone, and the elections were won by him in the end. This was despite some counties having zero voter turnout.
In the slums of the capital Nairobi (where our development projects are also being implemented) and in some rural areas, there were disproportionate violent clashes between the two main tribes—the Kenyatta tribe Kikuyu versus the Odinga tribe Luo. Police often used tear gas and water cannons to calm the situation. Tires were burning in the streets and fear prevailed.
The nation does not decide, the tribes do
People remembered the atmosphere of the post-election unrest in 2007–2008 and were afraid. Back then Raila Odinga almost won the presidential election. His followers (mostly from Luo communities) are still convinced that Odinga was more successful in the battle than his rival from the Kikuyu community. For this reason, too, weeks of unrest followed the announcement of the results in the country, which led to thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displacements, as well as massive internal displacement of people (IDP).
Now shops in some areas were open for only two hours, as sellers feared looting and attacks. People were staying at home. After the situation calmed down, however, people remained angry and dissatisfied. But the result of the October elections did not change, and so at the end of November 2017 Kenyatta was re-inaugurated.
In the meantime, Raila Odinga declared himself “President of the people.” On the day of the “inauguration,” the incumbent president turned off all television stations except one state television station, which did not broadcast the inauguration of the “President of the People.” Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the right to information were completely suppressed in democratic Kenya in the 21st century.
The sad trend remains that, despite people being aware of how immense Kenyatta’s weaknesses are and how much corruption and criminality have risen in the country since his coming to power, they still are unable to elect a nationwide Kenyan president, but only a president of their own tribe. Even though we talk with locals about this trend or this problem, the situation remains unchanged. The country is increasingly divided, which could affect the functioning of our development projects. It would be tragic if innocent children, who are the primary recipients of our aid and support, were to suffer from conflicts between adults of those tribes.
A few weeks ago, from Nairobi, I also traveled with a colleague to inspect our development project in Muhoroni, which is a rural area about 60 km from the city of Kisumu. It was while passing through some areas around Kisumu that we encountered a demonstration against the deportation of opposition representative Migunu to Canada. What we saw from the car was a Kenya I had not seen in seven years (that I live and work here). It was a bloody country, where young people were wielding sticks and machetes.
Angry youth were throwing stones at passing cars, stopping them and asking drivers whether they were from the Kikuyu or Luo tribe. Our car had to have a red ribbon tied on the rear-view mirrors as a sign of support for Raila Odinga, otherwise we would not have avoided conflicts. All cars were blocked on a bridge because stones had been thrown to block traffic. After the police arrived, the situation turned into undeniable chaos. In addition to tear gas, they also fired warning shots into the air; the situation got out of hand for them. The two of us barely got out of this situation—without health harm or serious damage to the car that we need for project logistics. This was exactly the moment when I realized that my new home—Kenya—was balancing on very thin ice. People now need very little for things to escalate and violence can repeat at any time. People are now already afraid of the 2022 elections and openly talk about violence. Division based on tribal affiliation is deepening more and more. Locals are no longer fighting together for one unified better Kenya, but rather the opposite...
Text: Dária Kimuli OZ Juahttps://www.juapredeti.com**