WHAT'S GOING ON IN KENYA?: Is Africa's Most Stable Democracy about to Collapse to Vote Rigging?

WHAT'S GOING ON IN KENYA?: Is Africa's Most Stable Democracy about to Collapse to Vote Rigging?

Current estimates are that at least 1,000 people have been killed in the East African nation of Kenya in the wake of apparent vote rigging which allowed President Mwai Kibaki to win the presidential elections which took place on December 27th.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the elections were stolen, has called for a new set of demonstrations to begin this coming Wednesday. The police are pledging not to allow the protests to take place.

Thus, the stage is being set for a new round of violence in a country long viewed as Africa's most stable democracy.

Odinga's charge of a stolen election appears to have some merit. Both pre-election polls and exit polling had showed his Orange Democratic Movement to be winning.

But as official polling results began to pour in tending to confirm that Odinga was winning, the Kibaki government initially slowed down and then stopped the vote counting. When the vote counting resumed, Kibaki had gone from losing to winning 97 percent of vote in his stronghold areas (based largely on tribal allegiances). At the end, Kibaki beat Odinga by a small margin and was quickly confirmed as the victor.

Both African and European observers expressed doubts about the fairness of the elections. Shuttle diplomacy has been conducted by South African Nobel laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer and Ghana's President John Kufuor. But nothing has worked. Odinga is refusing to meet with Kibaki.

Violence appears to be the only thing that is now guaranteed. The root cause appears be another example of African leaders who, once in power, will do just about anything (including rigging the vote) to stay in power.

http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur39991.cfm