Uhuru calls for huge turnout and peace

President Uhuru Kenyatta last evening used his final address before the elections to ask voters to turn out in large numbers at the polling stations.

At the same time, Mr Kenyatta called on the entire nation to maintain peace, no matter the result. 

He asked wananchi to reject intimidation and violence, and stand together.

The Jubilee Party presidential candidate’s address centred on the present generation as architects of the future.

“Kenya is the only home we have. It is the only home we know. Our children look to us to show them the way, to pass to them a country that is in a better state than that, that was left to us. We must not disappoint the founders of this nation and equally we must not betray our children,” he said from State House.

DEVELOPMENT

While he pointed out that he was making the address as a president and not as a candidate, there were echoes of the message he has been repeating in his campaigns across the country.

This was centred around the development initiated by his administration over the past four-and-a-half years, largely marked by infrastructure such as roads and the new railway.

READ: First Lady leads calls for peace

“I have spoken many times during the last few months about how I have worked hard day and night, over the last four years, to lay the foundation for building a strong and prosperous Kenya,” he said.

Sounding pensive, President Kenyatta referred to his father, founding President Jomo Kenyatta, whose words he said had stuck with him: “Our children may learn about the heroes of the past. Our task is to make ourselves the architects of the future.”

STRENGTH

He said from his own assessment: “Our forefathers would be proud of the progress we have made together; of the resilience and strength that we have shown, as the Kenyan people, when faced with hardship and adversity, and even when confronted by the very face of evil itself.”

President Kenyatta asked Kenyans to reflect on their spirit of resilience and working together as architects of the future as the General Election is held and the tense moments of waiting for the results starts.

“The job of an architect also comes with enormous responsibility. Each and every one of us is charged by God and by the legacy of every great Kenyan who has lived before us to care for one another, to love one another, to always consider the consequences for the future over the passions and ambitions of the present.”