Kenya has a president-elect. Uhuru Kenyatta barely got the 50% +1 of the votes required to outright win the election (he got 50.07%) and was pronounced the president-elect on Saturday afternoon. He is the son of Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, after Kenya gained its independence from the British in 1963. I've heard his family referred to as Kenya's royalty and he is much-loved by some and hated by others. He and his running mate, William Ruto, are facing charges in front of the ICC for crimes against humanity related to the last elections and those trials are slated to start in July. It will be interesting to see how that all plays out and how Western countries will react to his election. I haven't really done any research on that area yet, so nothing to report there.
We all sat around the poolside television yesterday, witnessing this auspicious moment in Kenyan history. The main challenger, Raila Odinga, had a press conference later in the day where he used very strong language saying that these elections had the same outcome as those in 2007. He said things like "flawed tallying" of the votes and "massive tampering" of voter registers and has vowed to contest the outcome. He is the same candidate who lost in 2007 but this time he has vowed to take the matter to the courts, not the streets, and is urging his supporters to keep the peace. So far, they mostly have. There have been a few violent outbreaks but they were quickly contained and mostly things have been peaceful.
Our security and administration staff continue to monitor the reactions and are waiting to see what happens on Monday morning when life in Kenya returns to normal. The country has basically been on hold this past week with most public transportation shut down and people remaining at home instead of going to work. If Monday morning returns to business as usual we will likely get the go-ahead to return to our sites, hopefully on Tuesday. They're still working out the details on that as they are going to send us back in private vehicles to avoid the transportation rush. I get to stay in Nairobi a few extra days to have dental work done and then I'll finally get to return home. Yes, home. I miss my new home here and am anxious to return. This time at "Camp Lukenya" has been fun but I'm ready to return to my students and my little house in Amagoro. I miss it all.
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