Saturday, February 2, 2013

Elections: Kenya 2013 !




As mentioned in a previous post, March 4th is the election date for local, county, and federal elections, including the presidency. There is a large amount of anticipation, and some anxiety, for this balloting date, in refection to all the deadly post-election violence from the last Presidential election. World political eyes are on Kenya, as they are working very hard for a peaceful national voting process.

There are some very specific items to this election which mark it as history making. There is a new constitution in place since the last election. Yes, a new Constitution!

One article of the Kenyan Constitution calls for the formation of “Counties” as opposed to an overall country wide federal governmental process … read Counties in comparison with States.

The new Constitution then calls for an election of Senators for each County … these Senators will work in conjunction with the existing House of Parliament … Representatives and Senators … aligned with the new Counties.

And the third significant article calls for the election of Women Representatives from each County to work at the Federal level … a major step. Similar to the significance of the US’s 19th amendment passed in 1920, almost 100 years ago.

The “official campaigning” has just started … without the advantage of television and radio being affordable to all Kenyans, the most common method for a politician to get their word out is the car/truck impromptu “parade” with many posters, street banners, and the loud speakers on the lead vehicle ... makes for interesting spectating, and some amusing traffic jams ...

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