The world simply can’t afford a President Trump in America

I retire to bed on Tuesday night fully confident that I will wake up lauding the election of Hillary Rodham Clinton as 45th President of the United States.

While the opinion polls on the popular vote may suggest a very tight race between the Democratic Party candidate and Republican rival Donald Trump, a close look at individual states convinces me that Mrs Clinton will win by a landslide on the Electoral College count.

All she needs is to hold on to the states already leaning on her side and then capture a few of the key battleground states.

CNN projections on Monday morning had Hillary, to use the familiar first name, just two Electoral College votes short of the 270 required to clinch victory. Mr Trump was on just 204, with 66 votes up for grabs.

Florida, with 29 delegates, will clinch it for Hillary. More than that, however, I would venture that Hillary will also pick up the majority of the remaining undetermined states, including erstwhile Republican bastions such as Arizona (11 delegates), North Carolina (15), and Nevada (6).

Then she will poach from Trump-leaning states such as Ohio with its 18 electoral college votes. The end result will be a whitewash that gives Hillary a nearly 370 delegates and reduces Trump to less than 170.

Now, this may be wishful thinking because, even if I am not American, I cannot countenance a Trump presidency.

Hillary may be a deeply flawed candidate in her own right, but her Republican rival is stark-raving bonkers.

I want to be persuaded that the majority of US voters are not mad too, to contemplate such a destructive, divisive, narcissistic, evil force in the White House.

If Trump wins, God forbid, then we will have to reassess our relations with the United States.

Choices have consequences. Americans really should realise that they cannot afford to have as president a racist, self-promoting, bully who thrives on sowing fear and inciting hatred.

STOKING ETHNIC CONFLICT

We have our own little Trumps in Kenya who specialise in stoking ethnic conflict and fuelling the drums of war. Our descent into madness after the disputed 2007 elections provides a chilling and very real example of what greedy and selfish leaders would do in order to win or secure power.

A President Trump would have the power to provoke global conflagration. Such a character cannot be allowed to have his fingers anywhere near the nuclear buttons.

Phew! This particular rant is over. Interesting that I have the freedom to give my two cents worth on a presidential election far, far away, yet on these pages I dare not indicate a preference lest I be held up to an ethnic prism.

I just long for the day our democracy will mature enough for our media to openly endorse political candidates and parties without fear of being pigeonholed.

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The chickens are coming home to roost. The war of words between Deputy President William Ruto and former Cabinet secretary Anne Waiguru exposes a bigger rift that could upset the power-sharing pact and succession plan that defines the Jubilee Party.

Caught in the middle of the row is President Uhuru Kenyatta, who for a considerable period has had to navigate a delicate balancing act between his deputy and the former Devolution Cabinet secretary.

The two are now caught up in a fresh flare-up over the National Youth Service scandal.

Ms Waiguru’s testimony in Parliament was the trigger after she pointed the finger at key Ruto aides.

She would have known that even without directly mentioning the DP, she was exhuming hatchets supposed to have been buried and stirring anew the hornet’s nest.

But still, the vitriol with which Mr Ruto jumped at the bait is surprising. The ensuing exchanges now are not about two individuals, but about the ties that bind together President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto.

It is instructive that when President Kenyatta’s family was recently mentioned in the Ministry of Health’s Sh5 billion probe, Mr Ruto’s supporters were conspicuously silent even as the DP made his ritual defence of the President.

Their reason was that the President’s allies are forever accusing the Ruto side of the alliance of insatiable greed. Now all are equally culpable. Tuko Pamoja.

[email protected]. @MachariaGaitho