By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
February 27 2013
Kenya’s next general
elections are just 48 hours away. It is an event that has been approached with
a lot of caution and apprehension since December 2007 when the results ended up
in disaster whose impact is still felt to this day.
Since then, a lot of water
has passed under the bridge. Thousands of internally displaced persons have
been resettled using public funds. Yet, there are still some pockets of IDPs
yet to be resettled, leave alone those refugees that fled across the border to
find refuge in Uganda. Yes, since then we have had our share of partisan
politics. It is time we took this brand of politics to bed and let Kenyans
decide which way they will vote come Monday morning.
One of the legacies of the
post election violence that has refused to go away is the trial of masterminds
at The Hague. The mere bureaucracy and the inability of the ICC trial to
commence have caused the next elections to catch up with it. And as things
stand, there is no telling when the trial will start if it will start at all.
As the ICC continued to
drag its feet, key witnesses and victims have died, some under mysterious
circumstances while others have gone through natural causes.
This delay has been an
embarrassment to the ICC since justice delayed anywhere is justice denied.
As the ICC intimated this
week that it may allow a delay of another four months before the case
commences, news also filtered from the same court that the case against Francis
Muthaura, the man alleged to have planned reprisal attacks in the Rift Valley
with Uhuru Kenyatta may not stand. If Muthaura is discharged, that will leave
only Uhuru Kenyatta among the three co-accused since General Hussein Ali had
been acquitted at the pretrial stage. And with Uhuru Kenyatta’s accomplices
acquitted, chances of Uhuru winning the case are very high.
Soon after the Ocampo Six
were charged at the ICC, rumour mill went overdrive in Central and Rift Valley
provinces trying to apportion blame, with Raila Odinga being accused of having
collaborated with Moreno Ocampo the then ICC prosecutor to fix his future
political contenders- William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta before the 2012
elections. However, this was not to be.
With the ICC trials now
likely to be in August 2013, Uhuru Kenya and William Ruto are firmly in the
race for the presidency with William Ruto as Uhuru’s running mate.
As we wait for the ICC trials to begin- whenever
that will be, one of the accused, radio producer , Joshua arap Sang has broken
ranks with William Ruto claiming that blaming Raila for their woes was all a
fabrication. He further claims that the rift between Kalenjins and Kikuyus can
only be bridged by Raila Odinga who belongs to neither of the two tribes.
The chaos that followed
the last elections gave birth to the grand coalition that forced Mwai Kibaki to
share power with Raila Odinga as the country’s second prime minister.
Soon after the formation
of the coalition, fresh power struggles started emerging that saw former allies
split and former foes coming together. In a series of fallouts, several
ministers that were instrumental in negotiation peace in the Kofi Annan team
fell by the wayside. Notable come-togethers in these new realignments were
Uhuru Kenyatta teaming up with William Ruto, Najib Balala and Charity Ngilu-
all former ODM pentagon members.
Also shifting alliances
were Kalonzo Musyoka, Kibaki’s Vice President of five years and Moses Wetangula
also from Kibaki’s coalition who joined forces with Raila Odinga to face off with
the other alliance in next week’s elections.
Away from election
politics that have occupied Kenyans for the better part of the last four years,
Kenya’s national assembly passed a robust traffic law that was supposed to
bring sanity to Kenyan roads. And indeed the launch of the campaign led by the
ministry of transport, consumed huge chunks of public funds in the local media.
However, a few weeks later, the campaign has died down with road accidents
going a notch higher. The madness of matatus drivers and commuter buses still
terrorize Nairobi residents with impunity. As I wrote this article there were at
least 60 reported deaths on our roads in just two days with no action being
taken by the traffic police. Incidentally this high number of casualties didn’t
even get a mention in international news yet 18 people dying in India and
another 19 at Luxor in Egypt were the news headlines worldwide for the better
part of two days.
This brings me to my last
point. The last two presidential debates that discussed a whole range of issues,
deaths on our roads were conspicuously missing on the menus. Road carnage as a
social issue never found its way into the manifestos of competing parties. Is
it because Kenyans have accepted lawlessness on our roads as a way of life?
As things stand now,
Kenyans are better off closing a chapter on post election violence, terminate
all the ICC cases and focus on electing our new crop of leaders. Whoever
Kenyans choose to lead them on Monday whether that person is Musalia Mudavadi,
Raila Odinga or Uhuru Kenya, let us all prepare to live with the outcome.
Kenyans will have spoken.
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