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| Kenyan Supreme Court members on the bench |
At the beginning of this week the Supreme Court released
a report that described their full judgment in detail. This report explained
that simply there was not enough evidence that supported the claims that the
technology errors would have influenced the results of the election (Mayabi-election, 2013).
The report also noted that further investigations and possible prosecutions of
the IEBC tender committee members who participated in the procurement of faulty
technologies during this presidential election is needed (Mayabi-IEBC). In
response to the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the IEBC, a website,
“People’s Court” that contains all the evidence used in the Supreme Court was
launched by Gladwell Otieno and Zahid Rajad from Africa Center for Open
Governance and Maina Kiai from Inform Action (Mwangi, 2013). The
creators hope the website will allow for members of society to engage in an
open debate about the transparency of the government.
I am going to try to closely examine the Supreme Court opinion and get back to you with my thoughts.
Trying to press on, Kenyatta and the new administration have
a long road ahead. On top of facing the challenges with the ICC and a slow
economy, Kenyatta must tackle corruption and ethnic divisions during his term.
Bonny Khalwale, a newly-elected senator explained that it’s not the tribes that
divide the country, but the unequal distribution of resources, specifically
land(Ngugi, 2013).
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Kenya has one of
the most unequal societies in the worlds: 30% of all citizens live in
poverty. Therefore, food insecurity,
unemployment, and corruption, must, Khalwale argues, be on the top of
Kenyatta’s agenda. Economists and policy exerts explain that some of the
promises made during Kenyatta’s speech aren’t feasible with the challenging
economy, and instead, open dialogue about ethnic divisions and corruption is
needed (Ngugi, 2013).
~WMB
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