It has been a quiet day in Mombasa for the rerun of the presidential elections. I got up at to go to Mass at 6:15am. It was my only choice. For those of you who know I am not a morning person, this tells you something about my concern for the day.
All the businesses downtown were closed and the streets were pretty empty. There were problems at Bangladesh where we have a dispensary in St. Patrick parish. Our clinical officer (physician assistant) slept there last night and stayed until 1pm. He did not see any patient with injury related to the voting process. He told me that the residents of the area had spread human excrement in the school which was to be the polling station and they were burning tires outside. The police brought the items for polling to the main road but were prevented from entering. Fr. Gabriel Dolan, a St. Patrick Missionary who works with the legal program in the parish, was able to calm down the residents and get the police to take the polling materials away. Apparently, the police set up a 'polling station' under a tree nearby and a few people voted. Unless all polling stations can be set up the credibility of the election will be nullified.
There was violence in Nairobi and Kisumu. There are four places in Kisumu area where they could not set up polling stations and they will try again on Saturday. The IEBC has one week to announce the results.
Some people want to think that now that the rerun has been performed they can announce that the President has been reelected and move on with their lives. The President himself has said that Kenya needs to move on. However, the opposition has announced that they are forming a resistance movement. This election will surly be contested in the court and it hardly looks credible to me. There are numerous deep seated problems that will not go away. Using the Constitution and the rule of law to govern procedures is a new path for this country. There is a long hard road ahead for all of us who live here.
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