NASA, Jubilee supporters differ on credibility of repeat election

IEBC presiding officer Lucy Jane Wanjuku display a rejected vote during counting of votes at Technical University of Kenya on 26 October 2017. [Edward Kiplimo,Standard].

After nearly three months of push and pull, the much contested October 26 repeat presidential election came to pass on Thursday with little surprises.

As expected, Opposition strongholds of Raila Odinga staged massive demonstrations to prevent voting in their areas, while regions aligned to President Uhuru Kenyatta witnessed impressive voter turnout.

Although both the August 8 and October 26 polls witnessed prolonged sparring between the two main political parties, activities around the exercise differed in many ways. First and most visibly, the turnout for the two differed greatly.

The first polls saw voters waking up in the wee hours of the morning, braving the cold and in some places the rain, to vote for their preferred candidate.

In other polling stations, for instance, Nairobi’s Moi Avenue Primary School where voters ordinarily throng at midnight, on Thursday painted a different picture. Last week though, many polling stations did not witness any camp-ins. Voters reported at 6am, and proceeded to do so at a leisurely pace devoid of any urgency.

The large voter turnout in August also saw Kenyans at their ingenious best, with most of the innovation being centered on jumping the queue.

Some women were thought to have made brisk business by hiring out their children to strangers since those with toddlers on their backs were given a free pass to the front of the queue.

Latest round

Most famous then was a video doing rounds on social media of a woman with a child, who was clearly too old, with a wrapped bundle on her back. Just as the woman got to the front, the child, wiggled out of it and walked away, leaving the queue jumper embarrassed and confused. Baby renting was so prevalent that the IEBC officials began marking the children with inedible ink too. In the latest round of voting though, no such shenanigans were needed as the queues were light and fast moving.

The past two elections have seen voters become their brother’s keeper. Often, the first person to wake up in the neighbourhood went around the village waking other people up to go and vote. It was as if on voting day, Kenyans lived by an unwritten leave no man behind policy. On Thursday though, this was largely ignored. There were no blaring vuvuzelas.

Neither were there car horns to wake people up. Those who chose to vote woke up and did just that. Those who chose not to stay home while others engaged the police in running battles to prevent IEBC officials from setting up shop.

Elsewhere though, different parts of the same neighbourhood seemed like two different worlds. On one side of Nairobi’s Ngong Road lies the informal settlement of Kibera that has traditionally been the bedrock of protest in the city.

On the other side lie plush high rise apartments keeping the city’s middle class safe from police water cannons and stray bullets. Though their stone walls kept them safe, they couldn’t keep the wind out.

The excitement that lay sprinkled all over the August poll was replaced by something much heavier. An apathy among the neutrals, an anger among the Opposition and a sense of finality for those who turned up to vote.

Amidst this mix of emotion as Kenya continues to slide further along an undiscovered path were the election cheerleaders- the dozens of observer missions at one point vilified by both political sides of the political divide hoping from one polling station to another waiting to give a verdict that perhaps only they will take to heart.

Still on voting day, the long suffering electorate was treated to a shouting match between the two main political sides. When one party held a press conference, it seemed the other was keenly following, pen in hand, taking notes to, minutes later, quickly assemble TV cameras and offer a rejoinder.

It was interesting at some point, but as the day wore on, this quickly descended into a juvenile exchange of baseless, blatant accusations.

When all is said and done though, the October 26 election will go down as one of the messiest in the history of Kenya. Chaos, violence, death and destruction on one side. Order, peace and jubilation for a job well done on the other side. Yet within these contrasting emotions, Kenya remains, or at least what is left of it.