Kenya emerges
After a fraught election, the nation is on right path
Kenya appears to have worked its way through elections more or less in one piece this time, in spite of some fairly dire history of sometimes violent confrontations in the past on these occasions.
Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, an Amherst graduate and the son of the father of Kenya’s independence, Jomo Kenyatta, beat traditional foe Raila Odinga, a four-time candidate and the son of the older Mr. Kenyatta’s traditional foe, Oginga Odinga, and six other candidates, by a convincing margin for a second fiveyear term.
Mr. Odinga has claimed that the election results were hacked, and thus not valid.
He did not call for violence in the streets, but did call for a work boycott on Monday.
It appears not to have been observed, which would suggest that any other efforts on his part to torpedo the elections are not likely to succeed.
John F. Kerry, U.S. secretary of state under Barack Obama and 2004 candidate for president, served as an election monitor, but also as a strong advocate for peace on the spot during Kenya’s elections.
Mr. Obama, half Kenyan himself, also spoke strongly to urge Kenyans to vote and to accept the elections results without violence. Mr. Obama’s plea was particularly relevant in the Kenyan political context since his father was Luo, from the same ethnic group as the principal losing candidate, Mr. Odinga.
The claims of hacking and other voting irregularities should be looked at closely by the electoral commission or the courts, as has been promised, and the inquiry’s results made completely public.
Mr. Kenyatta and his party should be generous in including opposition figures in his cabinet in the wake of the elections.
Kenya, with a population of 50 million is, relatively speaking, a success story in terms of governance and economic development in Africa, even though its government has a long way to go in terms of mopping up corruption and addressing poverty.
Kenya has registered economic growth of 5 percent each year since 2013. The Chinese just built Kenya a new railroad from its principal port, Mombasa, to its capital, Nairobi.
Americans should congratulate Kenyans on the occasion of the conduct of these apparently successful, peaceful elections.
The United States should also encourage Kenya to employ its resources to concentrate on improving the lot of its growing population, permitting it to withdraw itself from the 26-year-old, endless conflict in Somalia to its north while retaining general U.S. support.