Why Kenyans held peaceful polls?

Mobhare Matinyi, Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:21 Two weeks ago Kenyans surprised the world when they elected their fourth president in a relatively peaceful election compared to the past four multiparty polls. The only recorded deaths occurred in Mombasa where separatists unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the polls. The presidential polls saw the Deputy Prime Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, 51, emerging the winner after barely crossing the finishing line set at 50 per cent plus one vote. The president-elect received 50.07 per cent leaving his opponent, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, 68, at 43.31 per cent. Only a few thousand votes helped avoid a possible second round, assuming the election was not rigged. The mere fact that Kenyatta won by such a small margin was enough to spark unprecedented violence but Kenyans remained calm; this was after they had come out in large numbers, about 86 per cent of registered voters, to elect their leaders. Clearly, Kenyans went to the polls determined not to kill each other. But how did Kenyans, known for political violence, conduct a peaceful election? In fact, had it not been for the technical fault, as claimed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), this could have been the best conducted election in Africa. Today, Africa needs to learn something from Kenya. Honestly, the first reason was the fact that the Kenyan people were so content with their new constitution promulgated on August 27, 2010 with an approval of 67 per cent from voters. Remember, Kenyans had attempted to have a new constitution before in 2005 but for some reasons people rejected it in a referendum. The 2010 constitution completely changed the polity of Kenya, and for the first time it fully addressed the aspirations of the people. Certainly, this new constitution is responsible for the second reason, and that is, the formation of an independent electoral body, the IEBC which also took charge of setting the new boundaries of 47 counties and electoral constituencies. Kenyans trusted the IEBC and even when things went wrong in the electronic system, they still maintained their trust for the whole week, and that saved their nation. Third was the mere fact that the incumbent, President Mwai Kibaki, was not running again after seeing out his two terms. In Africa, when an incumbent is running again things get so complicated because they will use whatever means at their disposal to win the election, and that can set a nation on fire. Luckily for Kenya, this time Kibaki was retiring. We hope that Kenyatta will not resort to those tricks come March 2018. Fourth, let us not forget that the post-election violence of 2007/08 taught Kenyans a big lesson, that no one is a winner in any civil war. The nation lost more than 1,000 innocent people simply because some people wanted to rule and others wanted to be ruled. That experience was unfortunate and without a doubt Kenyans took it as a serious lesson. Another important factor was the legal opportunity that allows political parties in Kenya to form coalitions, something which in the past was used to cement ethnic politics in every election. However, this time the same was used to save the nation because one big coalition brought together the most rival tribes that have been killing each other in every election. Although this union was neither based on policies nor patriotism, it still worked successfully because politically-strong personalities were behind it. One thing in Kenya is that people care less about political parties, and in fact some Kenyans cannot even name the political parties behind these coalitions; they care a lot about personalities. Of course, it is better to bank on policies rather than personalities, but that is still too difficult for Kenyans. They still need to work on this! So, Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, agreed with his fellow inductee at the International Criminal Court (ICC), William Ruto, a Kalenjin, to form the Jubilee Coalition in anticipation that winning the presidency will miraculously rescue them from claws of the ICC. So the Kalenjins found no reason to fight their traditional nemesis, the Kikuyus. The Jubilee Coalition was therefore formed by Kenyatta, Ruto as running mate, and a few others in January 2013; one month after Odinga had formed the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD). Unfortunately for Odinga, he had a numerical disadvantage from the start since the Kikuyus and Kalenjins and the close-related ethnic groups form over 40 per cent of the Kenyan electorate. Worse for Odinga, he failed to push his people to register for voting, thus by the deadline of December 18, 2012, he was left somehow hopeless. Probably, that as well saved Kenya. Imagine if the difference between Odinga and Kenyatta was less than one per cent? Anyway, it didn’t happen.Kenyans have reminded us once again, that whenever there is justice, there is peace. Africans need to take this lesson seriously!