Diary Of An Election Observer

The 2022 general election has come and gone, and with it the fierce competition that elicited rising political tensions that reverberated across the country. The outcomes were fiercely contested, with William Ruto’s presidential win being disputed by his main rival Raila Odinga, who for a third consecutive time lost the election by razor-thin margins. The petition process did not disappoint with the drama; there were nursery rhymes, poems and Victorian quotes at play. The curtain closed with more – hot air, wild goose chase, red herring.

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The Man We Thought We Sent to Ichaweri

In the run up to the August 9 general election, rambunctious Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General, Francis Atwoli, made audacious guarantees that William Ruto would never be president, and that Uhuru Kenyatta was too young to retire to Ichaweri, the little village along Kenyatta Road in Gatundu South, Kiambu County, where President Kenyatta was born, and where his father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, had retreated to after his pre-independence release from house arrest in Maralal in 1961. Ichaweri was also where Jomo Kenyatta would commute to and from as president, daily. 

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The Evolution of the Presidential Oath 

Ruto will take two oaths administered by the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary, Anne Amadi, in the presence of the Chief Justice, Martha Koome. The first oath will pledge allegiance to the Constitution while the second is the solemn affirmation of due execution of the office of president – as envisaged in Article 141 (3) of the Constitution. 

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