Matiang'i can give Kenya an Abraham Lincoln moment

Former Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i has declared interest in the 2027 presidential election. [File, Standard]

On March 4, 1986, the air outside US Capitol was biting, a mist of disillusionment hanging forebodingly like smoke from wet wood. Thousands braved the rain as they waited for the second inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln, a man whose first term had seen more than half a million lose their lives in the civil war.

His re-election, a first in 32 years in the then 90-year-old Democracy, came as the war neared its denouement, with families still splintered, congregations cleaved and civility receded.