Do you think violence reported over elections was instigated?

In the period before the elections, there was a lot of drama, blame and counter blame between the Opposition and the Government. While I believe the violence was not consciously induced, there was a build-up right from the start when the impression the public got was that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission was working at the behest of the Jubilee Government.

It turned out that Jubilee was in the forefront defending whatever action IEBC took, to the extent one would have mistaken the Government to be the mouthpiece of the electoral agency. When the Government purchased police hardware and placed it on display days before the general election, some took it as a sign the Government was intent on rigging the elections as the Opposition had claimed all along and was getting ready for a showdown.

There are elements in society who don’t fear taking risks by challenging and taunting security agents, even knowing fully well that they cannot win. These are the fatalists who take innocent civilians with them when they get caught in the mix of street violence. These elections have been tense and the Government should have known that violence was bound to occur.

In Mathare, two people were shot dead after engaging the police in running battles. Social media rumours, fuelled by silence from IEBC when it was noticed results were not coming in real time, prepped a few individuals for violent confrontation with a Government that they have been led to believe did not play according to the rules in the August 8 elections.

Mr Ngase is a businessman in Kapsabet