Kibaki has narrowed Raila’s lead to just 8 percentage points. Raila’s lead has gone down to about 500,000 votes. There are still more results expected to come in from the Rift Valley and other parts of Nyanza that had irregularities. Central Kenya came out almost 100% for Kibaki.
It is not yet over. Not until all the results come in. This election, as was predicted, is going to be a close one despite ODM’s visible confidence in the likes of Ruto and Balala.
I am watching KBC and the mood seems to be indicative of the imminent announcement of a Raila victory. Kibaki is trailing the ODM candidate by almost a million votes. KBC, the state channel has shown victory speeches by Ruto, Balala and Nyong’o. Uhuru also appeared for a brief moment telling Kenyans to be patient and wait for the ECK to announce the results.
The state channel seems to have sensed the change and therefore is no longer sounding like a pro-government mouth piece that we have come to expect of it since independence. This sounds more like what happened after the 2002 elections.
Ruto made a speech about the winds of change that are sweeping through the country. Balala and Nyong’o talked about celebrations in readiness for the work ahead next year. Visibly tired and worn out Uhuru sounded disraught in the wake of the utter collapse of the Kibaki tena campaign.
The president’s campaign team had this election to lose and they seem to have done so in style. Raila is leading by a Nyanza-esque margin in Rift Valley, a known Kanu heartland. The opposition leader is also leading in Western, Coast, Nyanza and by a slight margin in North Eastern.
Kibaki is leading in Central and Nairobi (slight margin). While Musyoka has a commanding lead in his Eastern province backyard.
Confirmation has arrived that Ndile has lost his seat. He will be missed a lot.
The national presidential results are finally trickling in. ECK has also started regular updates with the parliamentary and presidential tallies. Interesting results thus far. Kibaki is still trailing Raila by over half a million votes. KBC has started acting like the GoP is going to lose. But there are still millions of uncounted votes. It’s definitely going to be a close election between Kibaki and Raila, going by the provinvial numbers.
Parliamentary results show that ODM will have a majority in Parliament. PNU candidates have lost to either ODM or one of the many sub-PNU parties. ODM-K has had a decent showing in Eastern Province with most of Ukambani voting for ODM-K candidates.
So far the VP and 18 ministers have lost their seats. These are: Musikari Kombo, Newton Kulundu, Kipruto Kirwa, Moses Akaranga, Simeon Nyachae, Njenga Karume, Raphael Tuju, David Mwiraria, Mohamud Abdi Mohammed, Morris Dzoro, Suleiman Shakombo, Mutahi Kagwe, Paul Sang, Kivutha Kibwana, Mutua Katuku, Joseph Munyao and Kalembe Ndile.
These big upsets have also reflected on the presidential vote with ODM beating PNU in areas that were deemed to be PNU strongholds – Kombo and Nyachae being prime examples.
more to come soon…
Results streaming into various Kenyan news stations show that the main opposition leader Hon. Odinga is leading the incumbent President Kibaki by hundreds of thousands of votes. But these results are just preliminary since many poll centres have not finished the tallying exercise. As it stands Hon. Odinga has big leads in Western, Nyanza, Rift Valley and Coast provinces, while President Kibaki leads in Central and Nairobi provinces. The third candidate, Hon. Musyoka is leading in his native Eastern province.
The big losers in this election include the vice president and several cabinet ministers who have lost their parliamentary seats. The vice president Hon. Awori lost his seat to Dr. Otuoma, an ODM candidate. Fork Kenya chairman Hon. Kombo has also lost his seat to an ODM candidate. Other big losers include Messrs Raphael Tuju, Mutahi Kagwe, Njenga Karume, Nicholas Biwott, Gideon Moi, Paul Sang, Kabogo, Moses Wetangula, Moses Akaranga, Billow Kerrow, Mukhisa Kituyi, among others.
Meanwhile veteran Ugenya politician James Orengo is set to return to parliament after winning the Ugenya seat on an ODM ticket. News just in indicate that Raila Odinga has recaptured his Lang’ata seat. There were worries that the ODM presidential candidate might lose this seat and hence lose the chance to be president even if he won the presidential race due to constitutional provisions that demand that the president must be a seating MP.
There are no results yet out of North Eastern province. The ECK has not said anything about this anomaly.
So today is the day Kenyans have been anticipating for the last several months. Beginning at 6 am. poll stations across the country will be opened so that Kenyans can go and choose their next government.
With campaigns having officially ended, the ball is now in the hands of the voters – many of whom must be glad that the season of noise and abuses is over. It is my hope that there will be a respectable voter turn out so that Kenyans choose the leader that most people prefer to be in the State House. I also hope that neither side will do anything silly that would make the loser not accept the outcome and thus drag the country through a period of uncertainty.
The race is going to be tight. According to the polls, Raila and Kibaki are in a statistical tie for the presidential vote. A high voter turnout could swing it either way. The parliamentary races are also going to be hotly contested. Even Raila is not so sure about his Lang’ata seat. Other doubtables are Mudavadi and a host of other outgoing MPs in the city.
All in all may it all go well so that come the 28th of December all Kenyans can forget about their political differences and come together to work for a better united Kenya.
kenopalo.com 