Post by pitbull on Dec 31, 2007 6:09:22 GMT -5
I ask your earnest prayers for our beloved country of Kenya at this time.
Riots have broken out all over Kenya tonight as my worst fears concerning the election has been realized. Tonight around 6:00 pm the incumbent Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner by the Electoral Commission of Kenya by a vote margin of around 200,000 out of 10 million. A large portion of the country of Kenya has rejected the declaration because of the perception of massive vote rigging.
Thursday the people of Kenya went to the polls after the most hotly contested election campaign in the history of Kenya. Most pollsters were predicting a very very close election. I was so proud of Kenya on Thursday as they went to the voting booth in record numbers. Many stood in line for up to twelve hours in the hot sun to vote and things went about as smoothly as anyone could hope. Most people waited anxiously around the televisions and radios throughout the night and the next day waiting for the results to come. I even traveled to Nairobi on Friday to pick up Scott Hall from the airport and the mood of the people was really good. The results were slow to come in but eventually the challenger Raila Odingo opened up a lead of nearly 1 million votes with almost 70 percent of the vote counted.
About this time a mood change started to develop as word began to come out that about 25 percent of the constituencies had not turned in their vote count and the electoral commissioner said that he could not contact his agents and had no idea where they were. As people began to protest and international observers began to express their concern the vote totals from these constituencies were slowly being released. A problem quickly became evident that the vote totals being released were not the same that was announced at the polling places when the votes were counted. The opposition protested and asked for a recount in Nairobi in the presence of the cameras and the international observers. The electoral commission refused this request. The opposition then called a news conference where one of the agents of the electoral commission came forward and admitted the vote fraud that was going on and that he could not in good conscious stay quiet about it. An hour later the incumbent was declared the winner and chaos began.
The government has now banned all live local TV broadcasts and we are now getting most of our news via international stations from satellite TV. Mr. Raila Odinga has called for a massive rally tomorrow in Nairobi but I do not believe the government will allow it to take place. Reports are that up to 20 people have so far been killed but I fear it may be much more than that.
I spoke on the phone to pastor Kiarie who pastors Habari Njema Baptist Church on the other side of town and he said there are fighting in the streets around his house between the Kikuyu tribe (president's tribe) and the Luo (challengers tribe). Pastor Kiarie is Kikuyu and he pastors a church that is in a high Luo area. He asked me to help get his family tomorrow so he can get them somewhere that will be a little safer for them.
Things are very calm where we live and I stress that we are not in any kind of danger nor do I perceive at this time that we will be. I believe that in a couple of days things will settle down and calm will be restored. But if the government does something irrational (like go after Mr. Odinga) then the outcome could be very different.
I followed the election very closely and watched as the people of Kenya voted out the sitting vice president, most of the government officials including 20 out of the 25 cabinet ministers. The opposition party has won more than triple the parliamentary seats than the government has won. It is of my opinion from what I have seen that the government stole the election through a massive rigging campaign. People are upset and upset people do irrational things.
Please pray that calm will be restored to Kenya and that either side in this confrontation will not do anything stupid to raise the level of the tension. I want to repeat that we are in no way in any kind of danger but many of the Kenyan people cannot say the same.
I will update you if things happen to change for the worse.
Thank you for your prayers,
His for Kenya,
Robert Mickey Jr and family
Sent from
Cleveland Baptist Church
Cleveland, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Folger
Riots have broken out all over Kenya tonight as my worst fears concerning the election has been realized. Tonight around 6:00 pm the incumbent Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner by the Electoral Commission of Kenya by a vote margin of around 200,000 out of 10 million. A large portion of the country of Kenya has rejected the declaration because of the perception of massive vote rigging.
Thursday the people of Kenya went to the polls after the most hotly contested election campaign in the history of Kenya. Most pollsters were predicting a very very close election. I was so proud of Kenya on Thursday as they went to the voting booth in record numbers. Many stood in line for up to twelve hours in the hot sun to vote and things went about as smoothly as anyone could hope. Most people waited anxiously around the televisions and radios throughout the night and the next day waiting for the results to come. I even traveled to Nairobi on Friday to pick up Scott Hall from the airport and the mood of the people was really good. The results were slow to come in but eventually the challenger Raila Odingo opened up a lead of nearly 1 million votes with almost 70 percent of the vote counted.
About this time a mood change started to develop as word began to come out that about 25 percent of the constituencies had not turned in their vote count and the electoral commissioner said that he could not contact his agents and had no idea where they were. As people began to protest and international observers began to express their concern the vote totals from these constituencies were slowly being released. A problem quickly became evident that the vote totals being released were not the same that was announced at the polling places when the votes were counted. The opposition protested and asked for a recount in Nairobi in the presence of the cameras and the international observers. The electoral commission refused this request. The opposition then called a news conference where one of the agents of the electoral commission came forward and admitted the vote fraud that was going on and that he could not in good conscious stay quiet about it. An hour later the incumbent was declared the winner and chaos began.
The government has now banned all live local TV broadcasts and we are now getting most of our news via international stations from satellite TV. Mr. Raila Odinga has called for a massive rally tomorrow in Nairobi but I do not believe the government will allow it to take place. Reports are that up to 20 people have so far been killed but I fear it may be much more than that.
I spoke on the phone to pastor Kiarie who pastors Habari Njema Baptist Church on the other side of town and he said there are fighting in the streets around his house between the Kikuyu tribe (president's tribe) and the Luo (challengers tribe). Pastor Kiarie is Kikuyu and he pastors a church that is in a high Luo area. He asked me to help get his family tomorrow so he can get them somewhere that will be a little safer for them.
Things are very calm where we live and I stress that we are not in any kind of danger nor do I perceive at this time that we will be. I believe that in a couple of days things will settle down and calm will be restored. But if the government does something irrational (like go after Mr. Odinga) then the outcome could be very different.
I followed the election very closely and watched as the people of Kenya voted out the sitting vice president, most of the government officials including 20 out of the 25 cabinet ministers. The opposition party has won more than triple the parliamentary seats than the government has won. It is of my opinion from what I have seen that the government stole the election through a massive rigging campaign. People are upset and upset people do irrational things.
Please pray that calm will be restored to Kenya and that either side in this confrontation will not do anything stupid to raise the level of the tension. I want to repeat that we are in no way in any kind of danger but many of the Kenyan people cannot say the same.
I will update you if things happen to change for the worse.
Thank you for your prayers,
His for Kenya,
Robert Mickey Jr and family
Sent from
Cleveland Baptist Church
Cleveland, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Folger