Nairobi, Aug. 9 (BNA): Kenyans are voting Tuesday in an extraordinary presidential election, as a longtime opposition leader backed by the outgoing president faces a reckless vice president who describes himself as an outsider and a “croaker”.
Elections are close but quiet, and East Africa’s economic hub may see a presidential run-off for the first time. The Associated Press (AP) said economic issues such as widespread corruption could be of greater importance than the ethnic tensions that characterized previous elections with sometimes fatal results.
Kenya is relatively democratic in a region where some leaders are known to cling to power for decades. Its stability is crucial to foreign investors, the most humble street vendors and troubled neighbors such as Ethiopia and Somalia.
The two leading candidates are Raila Odinga, the Democratic activist who has contested the presidency for a quarter of a century, and 55-year-old Vice President William Ruto, who has emphasized his journey since his humble childhood to attract millions of long-running Kenyans. They are accustomed to political dynasties.
“It is in moments like these when the powerful and the powerful realize that the choice is the simple and the ordinary,” Ruto told reporters. “I look forward to our victorious day.” He urged Kenyans to be peaceful and respect the choices of others.
“I have confidence that the people of Kenya will speak out in favor of democratic change,” Odinga told reporters. A crowd jogged alongside his motorcade as it arrived to vote in Nairobi.
Outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president, has crossed the usual racial lines and angered Ruto by backing his longtime rival Odinga after a bitter contest in the 2017 elections. But both Odinga and Ruto chose two running mates from the country’s largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu.
Odinga, 77, made history by choosing Vice President Martha Karua, a former justice minister and the first woman to run for vice president. She has inspired many women in a country where female candidates commonly face harassment.
Rising food and fuel prices, debt at 67% of GDP, youth unemployment at 40% and corruption put economic issues at the center of an election in which unregulated campaign spending highlighted the country’s inequality. But the characters are still important.
We need mature people to lead, not someone who offends people. “Someone who respects the elderly,” said 55-year-old teacher Rosemary Mullima, who arrived at a polling station on the outskirts of Nairobi to find about 500 people queuing before dawn. She had “very high” hopes for Odinga on his fifth attempt,
Others saw a turnout of less than 80% five years ago and blamed voter indifference. The Electoral Commission signed off on less than half of the new voters it had hoped to get, just 2.5 million.
“The problems from (the previous elections), the economy, and everyday life, are still there,” said 38-year-old shopkeeper Adrian Kibera, who was not sure he would vote. “We don’t have good options,” he said, describing Odinga as too old and Roto to be very inexperienced.
Difficulties have been reported at times with the electronic voting system, and presidential candidate George Wajakoyah told reporters that some voting tools in his stronghold were not working. Despite voting in low single numbers, Wajackoyah and his pledges to legalize marijuana raised questions about whether he could get enough votes to force a runoff.
The Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission told reporters that about 200 voting toolkits had failed out of more than 46,000, describing them as “unpopular” and “a normal thing” that technology sometimes breaks down. It also said that more than 6.5 million people had voted by midday, or about 30% of the 22 million registered.
Kenyans hope for a peaceful vote. Elections can be exceptionally turbulent, as happened in 2007 when the country imploded after Odinga claimed that the vote was stolen from him and more than 1,000 people were killed. The International Criminal Court has indicted Ruto with crimes against humanity for his role in the violence, but his case was terminated amid allegations of witness tampering.
In 2017, the Supreme Court annulled the election results, the first of its kind in Africa, after Odinga challenged them over irregularities. He boycotted the new vote and styled himself “President of the People”, citing treason. A public handshake between him and Kenyatta calmed the crisis.
This is likely Odinga’s last attempt, and Kenyans and election observers are waiting to see how his often ardent supporters react to the results and any allegations of fraud.
Ruto and Odinga said they would accept the official results – if the vote was free and fair. “It is the hope of every Kenyan,” the president told reporters.
To win completely, a candidate needs more than half of the votes and at least 25% of the votes in more than half of Kenya’s 47 counties. No outright winner means a run-off will take place within 30 days.
Results should be announced within a week, but impatience is expected if they don’t come before the end of this week.
“What we want to avoid is a long period of anxiety and suspense,” said Bruce Golding, who leads the Commonwealth Election Observer Group.
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