NAIROBI: Approximately 180,000 police officers and security forces have been deployed across Kenya as the region prepares to vote in a brutally-contested presidential election. The whole of Kenya suffers widespread unrest, including a campaign marred by hundreds of violent incidents, and murder of a high-profile election official. Voters would either return the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta, or elect the veteran opposition politician Raila Odinga.
“Do not allow anything to drive a wedge between you. You have been good neighbours and I urge you to remain so regardless of your tribe, religion or political affiliation,” Kenyatta, 55, said. As the electoral commission prepares ballot boxes before they are transported to different polling stations, Human rights officials, community leaders, and politicians have called on voters to “control their emotions and preserve a peaceful environment” when the results are announced.
Kagwiria Mbogori, the chair of the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, said, “If your candidate wins, do not rub other people's noses in it, and if your candidate loses, suffer stoically and do not let Kenya down... We must hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. She said the KNCHR was concerned about the “cowardly leaflets” threatening candidates and warning voters “of certain ethnic origins to flee or else.”
Violence saw several people wounded and one killed over last weekend in Mathare, one of the ghettos in Nairobi, as rival supporters clashed with machetes and guns. Analysts see the election as the last face-off of the dynastic rivalry between the families of both the presidential candidates, that has lasted over half a century. Nic Cheeseman, a professor of African politics at Birmingham University, said both candidates were so certain of victory that they may have “talked themselves into a corner” in which defeat is not an option. “The question is not whether or not they will accept the result but what they will do when they don’t accept it.”
Mbogori encouraged Kenyans to perform their civic duty to choose their leaders. “We look forward to the day when elections in Kenya are not the reason for fear and uncertainty,” she said.
