BLOGGERDecember 28 is an important day for the horn of Africa, though most haven’t felt its significance yet. If things go wrong in this week’s Kenyan elections, no one will be able to ignore its impact on further destabilizing the horn of Africa.
According to Kenyan polls and latest vote counts, the opposition might win the election in Kenya. But once again, the question is, would the ruling party leader give up power? Or will it just rigg the elections? Sadly, there are already allegations of vote rigging against the current Kenyan president. But I believe it is a false allegation since the opposition always wants to go on the record for having said that, just in case they lose the election.
The US and EU said around 300 people
have already died in violence related to the Kenyan election the last few weeks. However, unfortunately, no African country has went thru an election with zero violence. With the poverty especially in east Africa, dissident is more likely to raise arms. Kenya itself transformed into a multi-party system less than ten years ago, which leaves us to wonder if we can put too high expectations.
But if a lesson is to be learnt from a neighbor, Kenya must ask, was it the violence or was it the voting irregularities that marred the election in Ethiopia? So far the EU and US have praised the early voting conditions and the progression of the Kenyan election. If the Kenyan election is ruled free and if the vote counting is reliable and accepted by the top candidates, Kenyans will not remember the pre-election violence and it will become a role model for regional countries.
But if the Kenyan election fails, it can potentially start a more devastating cycle of violence. The failure of Kenyan election will also become another victory for the ideology of the Eritrean government which doesn’t believe in national elections. Then Eritrea can say, “I told you so” and discount democracy as something that should be given an indefinite appointment.
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The writer lives in America and he can be reached by ethiom842 @ yahoo.com -------------------------------------------------------------------
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