The Pièce De Résistance
It has been a few months since Donaldo was elected as president and we can't go a day without hearing some news about his or his staffs' shenanigans.
While we've all been distracted by America, the real show has been taking place in Africa... as it always does. Life began in Africa and by the looks of the current political climate it shall end too in Africa.
I've taken to looking at the current political climate like we're at a political restaurant and we have to eat all the courses. Brexit was the soup or salad, and now it's time for the main meal. The entrèe.The 2017 Kenyan presidential and everything else election.
The big daddy of the election season.
In Kenya, election season never really ends. You win and you're already campaigning, politicians will stop by funerals, weddings, fundraisers, the side of the road just to remind voters that they are in office and the other parties are all trash.
Do you smell that people?
It is the smell of a slow cooked, well done Third World election.
The SUV aka big-man cars are out in full swing. Buildings, street signs, and cars have been defaced with candidates faces. Infrastructure projects that should have been completed last year are finally being built this year. Doctors and lecturers have been paid, people have been registered to vote. Hearts have been broken, lies have been told, backs have been stabbed and political camps have been deserted.
Overenthusiastic crowds line the streets. Politicians wave atop the sun roofs of cars. There is Dancing. So much dancing.
America please step aside so we can show you what a Third World election looks like.
Third World elections are a little bit more intense than other elections. There is always the threat of violence, death, violence, rigging, violence and death. Election season is no joke.
It's not that we are savages and can't simply select our candidates and move on. It's that they rile us up so much. They makes us believe they are the end all and be all when it comes to fixing our problems. They make us so personally attached that we would be willing to lay down our lives for the person who will not work a single day for us when they're in office.
What's great is that we can thank developed nations for some of these problems we face during election season. During colonization, some of the countries had great policies such as divide and conquer where they got control of certain regions and people by purposely selecting certain tribes as the ones that other tribes should aspire to. The tribes that were selected would get preferential treatment over the other tribes and this led to hostilities that never really went away with independence. But who cares about colonialism that was less than a century ago? Besides, when it's reported on the news the story will be simplified to how Africans are just a bunch of tribal savages who don't get democracy.
My first election was the 2002 Kenyan presidential election... at least the one I remember being alive for. I couldn't vote but I remember arguing with my friends in school about who should be president and why. The president in Kenya at the time had been in power for 23 years and this was the first time he was not on the ballot. There was such a sense of hope and change, that whenever I think of elections I think there will certainly be some major changes coming along... even though I should now know better.
Elections can be a scary time. You never know what will happen, particularly in Kenyan elections. Already, people are talking about how this election season seems tense. I however, have faith in my people to do the right thing and pull off a Third World election without violence, death and rigging. Besides, as Kenyans we only have to worry ourselves with someone who can ruin our lives. It could be worse, we could be Americans and end up having to pick someone who doesn't only ruin our lives but the lives of everyone else in the world.