Protests have been occurring all over Kenya for the past 2 months in hopes to achieve a complete overhaul in the Kenyan electoral commissions. Last Friday, Electoral Board Chief Ezra Chiloba announced 3 weeks leave, coming back to work 2 weeks after the election. At a memorial for the opposition supporters who were killed in the protests, opposition leader Raila Odinga stated that he opposed his supporters attacking supporters of Incumbent Kenyatta or any other innocent Kenyans, but urged them boycott the rerun election. Though the first can be seen as a step closer to peace in Kenya, Odinga said nothing that renounced his ordinance to keep on protesting till the election. The regular occurrence of protests still allows for violence, and considering the election is getting very close, it wouldn’t surprising if more violence were to break out on the streets of Nairobi. The vacation of Chiloba is another factor in the possible violence leading up to this election. Opposition protesters are aiming for a complete overhaul of the electoral committees, and in taking 3 weeks leave during the time before and after the election, Opposition forces will probably retaliate as his leave creates an obstacle in their purpose. Because 4 people were killed in a protest on Friday, one could only imagine what will happen once Uhru Kenyatta secures his spot as president. Though Kenyatta’s constant reassurance at rallies that the elections will be democratic, the fact that a significant number of Kenyans support Raila Odinga’s cause and will not vote for Kenyatta, the suspicious act of the Electoral Board Chief Chiloba taking leave right before the election, and also taking into effect that this is a rerun election, the democracy of this upcoming election is very questionable. Odinga has stated that he would announce a “way forward” a day before the election. Odinga has now shifted his cause to become a full on resistance movement against the government. I believe that this can be seen as admission of defeat in the election, however, Odinga and his supporters are not likely to stop fighting anytime soon, extending the period in which political strife and violence can occur in Kenya.
