Kenyan Elections – Hopefully Peace will Prevail in spite of Western Media

The combination of Uhuru Keyatta and William Ruto have won the elections in Kenya comfortably without the predicted bloodshed that took place last time.

Though the western media calls it a “razor thin” victory, the fact is that Kenyatta-Ruto combination got 50.07% votes against 43.3 % secured by Raila Odinga. It is razor thin only if we consider that if Kenyatta had secured less than 50% votes, there would have been a run-off – Kenyatta avoided a run-off by 0.07% of votes.

Like last time, Odinga refused to accept Kibaki's victory, leading to large-scale ethnic violence. This time also, Odinga has refused to accept the verdict but has appealed to his supporters to keep peace and has promised to fight only legally. Last time, the Odinga-Ruto combination had refused to accept the verdict, the Luo and Kalenjin ethnic population went on a violent rampage against the Kikuyus. Odinga is a Luo, Ruto is a Kalenjin and Kabika, the former president who won last time is a Kikuyu. This time around, Kenyatta, who is a Kikuyu and Ruto joined hands, promising a multi-ethnic broad front and peace.

In the last elections, Kenyatta, who is also a Kikuyu was with Kibaki and Ruto was with Odinga. Kenyatta and Ruto have been charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) with complicity in the ethnic violence that broke out last time. ICC did not indict Odinga nor Kibaki, though they were the leaders of the two sides.

The west likes to portray every political event in tribal terms – Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luo, etc. The reality of mass politics including electoral politics is that it does give an identity dimension to political mobilisations. It is not for nothing that the Scots have their party in UK; no body calls Scots tribals! Ethnicity, religion, language are all important in politics and not only in Africa, but everywhere.

The problem in Kenya is not that political mobilisation is expressed in ethnic terms but that the existing political class has practised kleptocracy on a grand scale while failing to deliver development to the people. With the IMF-neoliberal polices, the poverty of the people and their health indices have even become worse.

Uhuru Kenyatta is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya and is reported to be the richest man in Kenya. Raila Odinga is again the son of a leading figure in Jomo Kenyatta's establishment and another very rich man. All of the leading figures in Kenya's political scenario have used state power to build personal fortunes.

The ICC trials have some obvious issues. No western leader in spite of war crimes such as the invasion of Iraq have been charged or likely to be charged in the ICC. It is only when regimes fall foul of the west that ICC seems to step in. It is not that such leaders are blameless, but that the “right to protect” or international war crimes targets are “coincidently” also those that the US and its allies would like to dispose off!

It was the African leaders stepping in that created a unity government and stopped the violence. That peace has still prevailed in Kenya is proof that Kenyan people do not want a return to ethnic violence.

Hopefully, the verdict that the Kenyan people have given will not be muddied by external forces.

It is time that the western regimes and their media let Kenyan and African leaders work out solution to their problems. A white man's burden is the colonial overhang in international politics that the world does not need.