Uhuru Kenyatta had better not reject election result

Going by recent experiences around Africa in which incumbent presidents lost elections in Nigeria, Ghana and The Gambia, where Yahya Jammeh rejected the results, police must do everything possible to prevent electoral violence.

A good police officer, like a crocodile, sleeps with one eye open and can smell trouble long before it starts brewing.

As the August 8, 2017 election approache, police detective work has mapped just 15 of Kenya’s 47 counties as being cool: Nyeri, Nyandarua, Kirinyaga, Tharaka-Nithi, and Embu in the so-called Mt Kenya region; Machakos, Makueni, Kitui, Tana River and Moyale in the east, north and Coast; Kajiado in the Rift Valley; and Migori, Nyamira, Vihiga and Busia in the west. The army has already deployed in Baringo and police are busy in Laikipia, so those two are cool, too.

Counties like Narok, Nandi, Kericho, Bomet, Elgeyo Marakwet, Samburu, West Pokot, Turkana, Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia and Nakuru in the Rift Valley; Kiambu and Murang’a in central Kenya; Isiolo, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera in the north-east; Kisii, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Siaya, Kakamega and Bungoma in the west; Lamu, Kilifi, Mombasa, Kwale and Taita Taveta at the coast; and the capital city, Nairobi, are all powder kegs waiting to explode into orgies of electoral violence.

KNOWN EXCUSES

The trigger for the violence to come will be the claims of rigging, ballot stuffing, voter bribery and intimidation – these are the known excuses employed by losers to negotiate a power-sharing deal with the legitimately elected government. Police cannot permit such lawlessness, hence the warning against rejecting election results and calling for mass action.

Given the large crowds President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Jubilee Party are drawing in the areas identified as hotspots, it is not unlikely that he would be tempted to reject election results that place him at a disadvantage, thus inciting the public to rise up in mass action against the government.

The police service, being independent, has no truck with such nonsense, hence the warning to everybody against rejecting the election results, zoning off areas and calling for mass action.

Police know that the polling clerks have been properly trained, computers inspected, hackers arrested and the vote count fool-proofed. Anyone who rejects results of the election would be inciting the public to violence and should be dealt with using the full force of the law. Refusing to recognise the person declared winner and deigning to lodge cases in the Supreme Court or other forums should not be tolerated.

RAILA ODINGA

Mass action is a right reserved in the Constitution for opposition leader Raila Odinga and his supporters and its exercise without his say-so is a grave betrayal of the years of sacrifice he has poured under the tree of freedom.

The violence hotspots can expect that the 2,720 police vehicles bought in the past four years will drive through every barricade of burning tyres and stones, braving Molotov cocktails and a hailstorm of stones to enforce law and order. Each of the troublesome counties should receive one of the 25 armoured personnel carriers purchased for police use, as well as one of the 30 Norinco VN4 4x4 armoured vehicles bought from China last year.

These pieces of equipment may have been acquired to fight terrorists, but when attacked by an itch, you scratch yourself with the stick at hand. People who dare to attempt mass action should be pulverised into pulp

People who are going to lose elections need to be warned that they will not be allowed to disturb the peace. The duly elected and declared president will be sworn in to office on schedule on August 29, 2017 without challenge, let or hindrance.

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