Elections in Kenya 

THE Supreme Court in Kenya has validated Wiiliam Ruto’s win in theVeteran politician, RailaOdinga, had filed a petition, challenging Ruto;’s win after alleging the election was marred by irregularities.

Meanwhile,outgoing President, Uhuru Kenyatta, has cast doubt on the consistency of the Supreme Court’s decision. He questioned whether it’s acceptable “for the Supreme Court to rule in one way in one election and later rule in another way in other elections without scrutiny.”

Kenyatta was referring to his 2017 Presidential election victory which the same Supreme Court overturned.

For the 6 August 2022 election, Kenyatta had ditched his deputy, Ruto,and vigorously campaigned

ceased to exist. Kenya,East Africa’s economic power house, cannot afford to follow the path of Rwanda. Kenya needs inclusivity and long term stability to grow its economy which is largely based on coffee and tea exports, tourism and shipping services.

Kenya’s economic prosperity has been the envy of many African counties that are better endowed with natural resources.

Joseph Brian Madhimba is a journalist and business and financial markets expert for Odinga to succeed him. Against all odds, Rutowon 50.8% of the ballots to Odinga’s 48.9%.

The result indicates a highly polarized country with tribalism tearing the nation into two. Ruto, a former ward and protege of former President, Daniel Arap Moi, belongs to the Kalenjin tribe,while Odinga is a Luo.

Ruto has been accused of tribalistic tendencies.He once appeared before the International Criminal Court in theHague facing charges of crimes against humanity. He was alleged to have incited communal violence after the 2007 Kenyan election.About 1200 peoplewere reported to have been killed in that violence. Ruto’s case collapsed after key witnesses withdrew their testimony

To be fair, Raila Odinga is no saint either when it comes to tribalism. He too has been accused of expressing tribal remarks likely to set Kenyaon fire.

Now that the Supreme Court of Kenya has declared the election winner, all political leaders in that country must make anall -out effort to lower the political temperature.They must denounce tribalism in the strongest terms and set the tone for their supporters.

African history tells us that tribalism can cause wars and genocide. A case in point is the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which about 800 00 thousand people were slaughtered because of the animosity between the majority Hutu tribe and the minority Tutsis.

For almost three decades, President Paul Kagame has brought a measure of stability and economic progress in Rwanda. However, the tribal powder keg still exists in Rwanda. This is because Kagame has not confronted the scourge of tribalism head-on. He talks and behaves as if the Hutu tribe has