We March 4th Together

Great news! The coast is clear; Kenya is safe to enter once again. The elections went…well…sort of. Seeing it was the fourth time Kenya has voted in elections and the first time under the newly (2010) implemented constitution you could say things went okay—at least they went better than last time in 2007.

March 4^th was Election Day. We left for Tanzania on March 2^nd so was not present for any of the election drama. However, we did have the luxury of having a portable, battery operated, radio which we could get sporadic updates “on the hour”. This was the way that we stayed connected and informed. Unlike in America, where the election results come out that night, Kenya’s did not. March 5^th no results, March 6^th and 7^th still no results but on March 8^th Kenya had their 4^th president, Uhuru Kenyatta. However it was not an easy decision because in order for an accurate declaration of a president one of the candidates needs to have 50% and then 1 more vote. That is why it took so long for the results to be declared because there was controversy between the two leading candidates, Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga. Still today, there is a lot of back and forth of how accurate the results are and Raila Odinga is not very content with his loss.

Despite what the American news is saying, which I’m sure it sounds worse then it is, Kenya is on the up swing. Fingers crossed for the next few days and even months. We (SLU Students) had dreams and even aspirations of staying in Tanzania for longer but it is nice to be back in Kenya. I’ll be sure to keep y’all updated if there’s any post-election drama!