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Kenyan Presidential Candidates Make Final Push

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Gabe Joselow

February 26, 2013

NAIROBI, KENYA — With just under a week to go before Kenya’s presidential election, candidates are making their final efforts to court voters. The race has come down to two main competitors: Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president who represents the Jubilee coalition, and Raila Odinga, the current prime minister and head of the CORD alliance.

The two candidates have drawn huge crowds as they cross the country seeking votes.

Some of their most vocal supporters gather on a street corner in Nairobi in a so-called People’s Parliament. Kenyans meet daily to argue politics and to try to convince each other to change their views.

CORD supporter Omukoko Shitandi said, "Every Kenyan can agree with me that Raila Odinga, politically, he was the brainchild of the struggle for multiparty in Kenya. And socially he has been the champion of the struggle for the rights of both the poor and the rich in Kenya.”

Jubilee supporters, like Patrick Matho, are unconvinced.

“There’s a lot of unemployment in Kenya but we believe that in Jubilee, the way we’ve read the manifesto and the way they have put some funds aside for the youth and women, I think it’s the right party,” said Matho.

Kenya Elections:

Voters select president, bicameral legislature, governors and county assembly
8 presidential candidates
To win presidency, candidate must get 50% of votes, plus one, and at least 25% of votes in half of Kenya’s 47 counties
If no clear winner, a second round of voting is scheduled for April 11
14.3 million registered voters

Uniting his base

Jubilee supporters are defensive, though, about the International Criminal Court charges against Kenyatta for his alleged role in the violence that followed the last election in 2007. Western diplomats have suggested a Kenyatta presidency could weaken ties between the international community and Kenya.

But professor Joshua Kivuva of the University of Nairobi said the charges have actually helped to unite Mr. Kenyatta’s base.

“Without the ICC, the Jubilee would not exist. Uhuru Kenyatta would not even be a factor in this. He was a nobody without the ICC,” said Kivuva.

Supporters from both parties acknowledge that tribalism dominates Kenyan politics.

Odinga, who is part of the Luo tribe, is relying on votes from his supporters in the western part of the country.

Tribal politics

Kenyatta depends on the Kikuyu tribal vote in central Kenya.

Professor Kivuva said the role of tribe, however, is largely misunderstood.

“Actually Kenya has never had tribal politics, that is the biggest misnomer that has been perpetrated all the time. Kenyans vote very much on ideological basis, it’s on that [where] ideology and tribe converge,” he said.

Other candidates have tried to change the political conversation this year.

Peter Kenneth ran on a campaign that rejected tribalism and tried to court Kenyans from across ethnic lines. While he has been popular on the campaign trail, he has ranked near the bottom in recent polls.

All parties say they want to avoid a repeat of the violence that killed more than 1,100 people following the last disputed election.

The vote on Monday is likely to be incredibly close, though, with the two leading politicians separated by only a couple of percentage points in recent polls. Candidates have already started trading accusations of vote rigging, raising tensions and the possibility that the results again could be disputed.

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by: Professor David O. Monda from: Los Angeles

February 27, 2013 2:51 PM

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Dear Editor:
Thank you for your analysis of Kenyan presidential candidates. The problem of tribe in Kenya goes back to the colonial era and was exacerbated by the fall out between Jaramogi Odinga and Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta used the state resources to uplift his core ethnic constituency and destroyed the pre independence relationship he had with Odinga by detaining him and silencing opponents. His son Uhuru Kenyatta has the unfortunate burden of having to answer for the sins of his father.

The election of 2013 is in an ironic way a round two show down between the son of Jaramogi Odinga (under CORD Alliance) and the son of Jomo Kenyatta (under Jubilee Alliance). Each is lobbying his core ethnic constituents in Nyanza and Central provinces. This leaves the other 40 tribes with no recourse but to get behind one of these two camps.
The building of legal / political institutions and the growth of the economy is the key to Kenya’s future success. Coupled with this is the respect for these institutions by the political elite and the development of legitimacy in these institutions in the eyes of the public.

On March 4th 2013, the test of the political maturity of the nation of Kenya will be severely tested. Success in the electoral experiment will be an example to regional leadership in Uganda and Tanzania where de facto one party systems run the political show.

Professor David O. Monda
Department of Social Sciences
Ashford University.
Email: david.monda@faculty.ashford.edu

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