01/03/2013 17:09
High stakes in Kenya's critical election
Kenya's most critical and complex election in its 50th year since independence kicks off on March 4, next Monday, CNN reports.
Critical because it'll be the first real road test of the new Western-style liberal constitution promulgated in August 2010 in the aftermath of Kenya's near-death experience after the controversial 2007 elections that resulted in a convulsion of violence that saw over 1,000 killed and at one point over 600,000 displaced.
Critical as well because, crucially, two of the leading contenders, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto of the Jubilee Coalition are defendants before the International Criminal Court (ICC) accused of crimes against humanity. They deny the charges, and will both run in the election.
Rather unfortunately, an election many had hoped would be about the new constitution and resolving the underlying issues that made the last election so toxic, has ended up, thus far, defined by the ICC and the tribal mobilization this has enabled.