In the US, for example, since President Donald Trump was trounced at the polls by Joe Biden, he has never stopped screaming he was rigged out—something that is simply not possible.
Indeed, Trump started whining about being rigged long before the November 2020 election and when all else failed, he mounted a coup attempt that was repelled and defeated owing to a super majority of Americans rejecting the nonsense. America’s strong institutions also provided the protection of democracy as the country’s founders intended.
For this reason, some Americans have refused to recognize Biden as President and laughably continue to refer to Trump as their President. You can refer to a defeated presidential candidate as president all you wish but that is never going to change the fact there is a duly elected leader and nothing you can do to prevent him or her from exercising his or her presidential powers.
In Kenya, many accepted William Ruto as the duly elected president once the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging his election. Others have refused to do so and somehow believe that will make him less a president or less effective in exercising the immense powers he has. They are wrong on both counts.
There is nothing wrong to challenge the election of a president or to refuse to accept the person declared winner of a presidential poll is, in fact, the duly elected president. The Constitution recognizes this and that is why we have allowance for anyone dissatisfied to challenge the results in the Supreme Court.
However, once the Supreme Court has has rendered a ruling, that is the end of the story as to who the duly elected president is. In 2017, the Supreme Court annulled the reelection of President Uhuru Kenyatta in an historic decision that ordered fresh polls.
The decision was based on overwhelming evidence that screamed for nullification.
In 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition challenging the UhuRuto election, citing lack of evidence to nullify the elections. The biggest difference between 2013-17 is that in 2013, Uhuru went on to form a government and the opposition accepted and moved on. However, in 2017, NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga refused to participate in fresh elections opting instead to force a shared power sharing with Uhuru represented by the now famous or infamous handshake, depending on who you ask.
Many say Raila is again trying to force another handshake with Ruto.
The President has said he will not agree to such and neither will he be cowered into it. Though a handshake is theoretically possible for in politics you cannot rule out anything, it is far more likely there will not be one.
The dynamics are just not the same as in 2017 and neither is there a hungering for something to be done with how the presidential elections turned out, starting with the historic nullification. You can quibble with the merits or usefulness of the handshake but one thing you cannot quibble with is it prevented the country from going to a path none of the breathing and long departed would have wanted it to go.
That being the case, it is critical that we all put politics in the back burner and focus on solutions to the country’s myriad of problems, starting with reviving the economy and lowering the cost of living that is killing Kenyans.
That can only be achieved by us all rallying behind the President and leaving politics for another day. That does not mean the President and his government cannot be criticized or held to its feet. It should and it must for a healthy republic.
