Kenya Decides 2017: A Brief Recap and Update.

This is my first article post- the just-concluded, then annulled and soon-to-be-repeated 2017 General Elections and frankly I had a difficult time getting started given the dizzying permutations of twists and turns the process (or event depending on your bias) has undergone over the last thirty days.

(For the record, the Chief Justice of Kenyas Supreme Court Mr. David Maraga noted that an election is not an event (but) a process from beginning to the end - much to the chagrin of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his supporters.)

Let me be frank, my hesitation in penning a piece after the August 8, 2017 elections was multi-layered:

First, I was saddened by the August 11, 2017 announcement by IEBC Chairman Mr. Wafula Chebukhati that Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto had been re-elected . Leading up to the elections, I had written extensively in support of the challengers Raila Odinga/Kalonzo Musyoka so when the results were announced, I was not happy.

My saddness over the announced outcome was exacerbated by what followed thereafter.

I would describe what followed IEBCs announcement of the results as state-sanctioned brutality against people exercising their right to protest . President Uhuru Kenyattas government, claiming that its law enforcement and security forces were keeping the peace and saving property, unleashed an increasingly militarized police force on mostly peaceful citizens protesting the outcome of the elections .

I will eschew a prolonged discussion re: post-election law enforcement-perpetrated violence nor will I get into the ghoulishness of dueling body counts that usually follow such events. One dead person is one too many. On the other hand, I will summarize the end-result of the protests that followed the announcement of the election results using two names:

Baby Samantha Pendo and Stephanie Moraa .

My sadness over Mr. Chebukatis announcement of an Uhuru victory was quickly followed by a What Now? after NASA filed a petition challenging the announced results and in rapid-fire succession, the events thereafter culminated in the September 1, 2017 announcement by the Supreme Court of Kenya annulling the results.

I will offer as Exhibit A of the summary of NASAs petition, this greatest hits video featuring key exchanges between the various lawyers and the justices of Kenyas Supreme Court including one between President Kenyattas lawyer Tom Macharia and Lady Justice Philomena Mwilu and another featuring Lawyer Paul Muites confusing AND confused explanation of the inconsistent presence of the security features on the election ballots.

The foregoing aside, l congratulate Kenyans for performing, with admirable aplomb, their civic duty and voting. The country voted in impressive numbers but even more impressive was their collective conduct during the voting process.

Kenyans were orderly and patient and civil.

But as their leaders have done throughout history, the country was once again let down by malleable, selfish and irresponsible election agency bureaucrats, a dogged challenger and incumbents that appear to have ordained themselves as keepers of Kenyas presidency.

By declaring President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr. William Ruto the victors even as its chief executive Ezra Chiloba appealed for more time to produce Forms 34A upon which the agencys announcement SHOULD have been predicated, IEBC set the stage for yet another Supreme Court-decided presidential election, which happened , this time in favor of the petitioners Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and their NASA Coalition.

In a ruling heard around the world, Kenyas Supreme Court, led by CJ David Maraga and three other justices of the court, ruled 4-2 that the electoral board IEBC had committed "irregularities and illegalities" during last month's vote thus making the announced results invalid, null and void.

The scope and extent of the rigging and the manipulation that took place during the polling was so audacious and blatant that according to challenger Raila Odinga, results of the presidential race started streaming into the IEBC server on August 7, 2017 - one day BEFORE votes were cast!

In my opinion, IEBCs failure to allow the petitioner NASA access to the server that housed the tabulated election results - even after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court - was just one of many smoking gun proving that the elections had been manipulated; this coming in the wake of the suspicious and gruesome torture and murder of Chris Msando , IEBCs Deputy Director of the agencys Information & Communications Technology (ICT).

In hindsight, maybe the orderliness and civility with which the voters comported themselves lulled observers and the international community (AU, Commonwealth, EU, UN, USA) into a false sense of normalcy and belief that the rest of the election process - vote tabulation and tallying, electronic transmission of tabulated/tallied figures to headquarters, timing of announcement of the results, ensuing concession THEN victory speech by either side etc. - would be just as orderly and civil.

Former US SecState John Kerry flippantly opined that there were "little aberrations here and there.....(but) the election was not rigged .

The African Union, along with the Commonwealth Observer Mission, should have just kept quiet given their clientele - African strongmen and presidents-for-life. Neither did not, preferring instead to offer the per forma We believe/are satisfied that the election has been conducted in a transparent and credible manner and that Kenyans must be commended for that election.... ."

The congratulations and proclamations of fair and free elections were prematurely off - by several miles - so much that the widely-respected New York Times offered a mea culpa!

In a rich twist (of irony) during this presidential election cycle, Kenyans AND the world saw the same foreign governments and organizations that sought to influence the outcome of the 2013 presidential elections do the same thing in 2017 only that their Kenyan clients were on opposite ends in either election!

Likewise, Kenyas Supreme Court which was accused of accepting bribes to rule in favor of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto in 2013 flipped the script in 2017 and ruled in favor of Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka - this time for a do-over - set for October 17, 2017.

Like I offered in my last piece, let me say that it is my hope that ALL Kenyans will join me in pledging to:

- Partake in a PEACEFUL but even more importantly FAIR election PROCESS - from start to finish.

- Accept results of the elections OR use the existing (legal/constitutional) mechanisms to resolve any disputes, the historical and demonstrable lack of independence and objectivity of said mechanisms/institutions notwithstanding.

- Reject in no uncertain terms, ALL forms of violence or incitement to violence INCLUDING use of law enforcement, para-military AND military assets to provoke/goad and/or brutalize those expressing how they feel about the outcome of the elections.

To the foregoing let me add that regardless of who wins, Chief Justice David Maraga and his entire Supreme Court bench have done Kenyans proud.