Dear
Hon Odinga.
My
name is Brian Edgar Omwango, and I am a Childcare Assistant at Faraja Children’s
Home in Ngong town, Kajiado North District. I hail from Sirandalo Village in
Budalang'i, Busia County, where I am a registered voter.
As I
write this, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta has just been declared the duly elected
President of the Republic of Kenya. Bar the intervention of the Supreme Court
or, God forbid, a catastrophic event, he shall on 26th March 2013 become the fourth
person to be sworn in as President in Kenya’s history.
Personally,
I would not have wanted a Kenyatta presidency. Of the eight candidates who
contested the presidency on March 4th 2013, you were by far my most preferred
candidate, although I also had a soft spot KNC’s Hon. Peter Kenneth, whose
campaign in my opinion was the only one driven by issues which matter and not
personality. His candidature was followed in more or less equal approval by
those of Hon. Martha Karua and Mr. James Ole Kiyapi, with President-elect Kenyatta’s
candidature coming a distant fifth. I found Hon. Paul Muite’s run nothing more
than a vanity project, Mr. Abduba Dida
ran as a joke in my opinion, and the very thought of Hon. Musalia Mudavadi in
State House scares the shit out of me.
Anyway,
it was apparent from a very early stage that Hon Kenneth’s chances were only
slightly better than a pig breeder’s in Saudi Arabia, and that you were the
only candidate who stood a realistic chance of competing against President-elect
Kenyatta and even winning. So I
consolidated my support and my vote behind you, and fervently prayed and hoped,
with millions of other Kenyans, that you would go through and clinch the
presidency.
But
sadly, it wasn’t to be. President-elect Kenyatta had the numbers, and he sailed
through.
Right
now, you have reportedly challenged President-elect Kenyatta’s election at the
Supreme Court, seeking a comprehensive re-tallying of the votes as there
apparently were irregularities with the Independent Elections and Boundaries
Commission (IEBC)’s tallying process which handed him the win.
As I
write this, we do not know how the Judges are going to rule, and it is
impossible to speculate. To be honest, my preference would be that the judges at
the Supreme Court rule in your favor and order a fresh tallying exercise, which
returns a landslide win for you. But I also understand that President-elect Kenyatta
himself represents the aspirations of millions of Kenyans, including some very
close friends of mine, and not only will such an outcome be devastating for
them, but the way they voted for him makes such an eventuality hugely unlikely.
It
is thus only logical to assume that even were the Supreme Court to rule in your
favor and a re-tallying process happened to shave off the roughly 5000 votes
which pushed President-elect Kenyatta over the 50%+ 1 vote threshold he needed
to win the presidency outright , chances of you winning in the second round
would be very limited. Not impossible, but very difficult.
In
this regard, therefore, I have made my peace with the prospect of a Uhuru
Kenyatta presidency. Like I said, President-elect Kenyatta wasn’t my first,
second or even fourth choice, but his presidency is, as far as can be
ascertained at the present moment, the will of millions of people who have
every right as I do to call themselves Kenyans. Having fulfilled the
requirements spelled out in the Constitution I helped draft, voted for and
promulgated, I acknowledge that he shall be my President and sincerely wish him
well.
But where
does this leave you, dear Hon. Odinga?
First
of all, I would like you to understand that much as I have acknowledged
President-elect Kenyatta’s victory in the elections, I do not and will never
accept the manner in which it was won. As a patriot who believes in my nation’s
unity in diversity, I find it apalling that our shared destiny has been taken hostage
by the so-called ‘Tyranny of Numbers’ brand of ethnic-based politics
President-elect Kenyatta so blatantly employed to win the elections; and from
the moment Commissioner Hassan declared him the winner, I vowed to seek out as
many people as possible who found the phenomenon as obnoxious as I did and form
an army to fight it with every drop of sweat, blood, energy and intellect we’ve
got.
Secondly,
I want to emphasize that elections failure notwithstanding, I still consider
you my leader, and my dream of seeing you one day govern this country from
State House, although disappointed, remains as alive and aflame as ever. I have
always admired your brand of politics and your evident desire for social
justice, and your fight for the second and third liberations of Kenya is the
stuff of legend. You are the only national politician credible enough to
galvanize widespread affection of citizens across countrywide demographics, and
your leadership has always transcended ethnic persuasion and considerations.
It
is your nationalist credentials and your kind of leadership that the fight I
have taken upon myself requires, and thus in a nutshell, the purpose of my
letter to you is to humbly implore you to remain at the front page of the
fabric of our national political discourse. President-elect Kenyatta may have
beaten you to the apex of Kenya’s leadership, but he does not represent the
aspirations of what my vision of nationhood is. I shall honor and respect him
as my President, but it is you, Sir, that shall be the beacon for the direction
I have chosen to seek for my Nation.
God
Bless you and God Bless Kenya.
Yours
Sincerely
Brian
Edgar Omwango
