Nairobi — Kenyan blogger Daudi Were shares insights on the 2007 national elections from Nairobi.
Kibera displays her maturity – Kenyan Election 2007
Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 5:03 PM
During today’s General Election in Kenya the moment that had the most potential to spark disorder arrived when ODM presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, turned up to vote only to find that his name was not on the Voter’s Register. As he has been registered to vote in Kibera for over a decade and that you have to be a registered voter in order to vie for the presidency it was a ridiculous situation for the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) to find itself in. Especially as ODM have repeatedly claimed that there has been a serious illegal attempt to lock Raila out of the Langata constituency seat (in which Kibera lies) as this would bar him from the presidency were he to win the presidential vote as one of the sections of the Kenyan constitution that does not make sense requires the president to be an elected member of parliament. If there was one polling station in the country you would expect the ECK to ensure everything would go smoothly it would have to be this one!
Raila made a quick dash to the ECK where he was assured it was technical glitch and the correct Voter’s Register would be made available at the polling station.
The problem affected some voters whose surnames start with letters O, P, Q, R, A and W in the incident that forced the ECK chairman, Mr Samuel Kivuitu to visit the centre. These letters are significant bearers of names with these initials hail from communities where the ODM presidential candidate enjoys a large following.
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The international and national media descended on Kibera as “Sub Saharan Africa’s Largest Slum” (™) would surely explode in a ball of violence.
Well it didn’t happen. Tensions were high but as word spread that Raila had finally managed to vote at 12.30 tensions eased; people continued queuing and continued voting. Many expressed that the whole drama was cooked up in order to get Kibera burning but they would not fall for that trick. Many presiding officers are talking of expecting a turnout of around 80%! Compared to 57% 5 years ago this is a massive leap.
The people of Kibera have decided that the ballot will speak for them. No doubt this will disappoint some people, however, it is yet another reason why I am extremely proud to be Kenyan today.
