We went for General Election on 27th dec 2007. What followed was nothing anybody could have foreseen. I am lucky that I am still alive. 1500 Kenyans lost their lives and 600,000 were uprooted from their farms and homes. We now have Kenyans who are refugees in their own country. We call them IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons)
How did we get to that point?
We had three main parties running in these Elections. Party of National Unity (PNU) was led by the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) led by Raila Odinga and ODM-Kenya led by Kalonzo Musyoka.Each party had to nominate one candidate per constituency. To select the party’s choice there was a nomination exercise within the party. During the party nominations, violence and blatant rigging was the order of the day. People who could buy the party tickets called the day. As expected very dirty characters sailed through. This should have been a pointer to what we were headed for.
Both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections were held on 27th dec 2007.
Rigging was rampant and violence was commonplace. Election Commission of Kenya which was running the show lost control of the events compleately.Desputes became the order of the day.The last straw was the announcement of the Presidential results.
During the run up to the election, ODM had kept insisting that plans were being made
to rig the elections. In Rift Valley Province, some communities were told to lookout for any signs that PNU was winning to know that the election were rigged and prepare for war. On 30th dec 2007 The Election Commission declared President Mwai Kibaki of PNU the winner placing him ahead of Raila Odinga of ODM by 232, 00 votes.Naturaly ODM disputed the results and the country was plugged into bloodletting never before seen in Kenya. Images of violence and death were screened by the major Media services all over the world. This madness went on for three months until pressure from the international community brought the warring sides to negotiating table.
Committee of Africa’s Eminent Persons led by former United Nations Secretary Genaral.Kofi Annan brought PNU and ODM to a power sharing deal in which Kibaki of PNU retained the Presidency and a Prime Minister’s Post was created and given to Raila Odinga of ODM. Kalonzo Musyoka of ODM-Kenya was appointed the Vice President. Ministries were shared between all parties and the violence stopped. Grand Coalition Government has been formed and the biggest challenge is resettling the Internally Displaced People.
