• Prior to the elections, Trump was using rhetoric intended to incite and prepare his horde of followers to reject his defeat.
• The big question now is, what is Trump going to do? He is clearly not conceding, and few think he ever will.
Image: REUTERS
The world is anxiously watching the goings on in America. The soon to be ex-president Donald J Trump was trounced at the polls by now President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris. She becomes the first woman to hold that office. She has other firsts but that is just one.
Trump clearly lost the elections and all media, including right wing (pro-Republican) media, declared Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
This was done not by conjecture, but after analysis of data which all yield the same outcome: a Biden victory. However, that notwithstanding, Trump refuses to concede, claiming he won and that Democrats rigged him out.
There is no evidence of that because that did not happen; rather, Trump lost the old- fashioned way: getting five million votes (and counting) less than Biden has harvested.
Even more importantly, Biden has cruised way past the minimum 270 votes needed in the Electoral College to be declared president and nothing can change that.
The big question now is, what is Trump going to do? He is clearly not conceding, and few think he ever will.
Prior to the elections, Trump was using rhetoric intended to incite and prepare his horde of followers to reject his defeat.
He continues to use the same rhetoric and, unfortunately, save for a handful of Republicans here and there, Republicans in key leadership positions in the country have unbelievably and shamelessly come forth saying they support Trump with his bogus claims of vote rigging.
There is also now a planned 'march'” in Washington, DC, on November 14, when Trumpians are supposed to gather in support of Trump and his reckless and wanton attempt to delegitimise Biden’s election - while also destroying what was left of America after the man rammed through her like a wrecking ball.
Looking ahead, what is afoot on that November 14 is more likely a recipe for chaos and violence unlike anything Americans have seen before.
Post-election violence is nothing one associates with American politics but that phenomenon will be put to the test on that day, and continuously through January 21, 2021, when Trump’s term in office expires.
By that date, Trump would have either voluntarily vacated the White House, or he will simply be thrown out.
This is because there is such thing as a man or woman being greater than the country. Take it to the bank that America is it.
Were that not the case, Trump would have already converted America into a prototype of Russia or North Korea. He has not because there are checks and balances in the system that make that virtually impossible.
This is also precisely what we need in Kenya, and in Africa for that matter: strengthening our institutions and rule of law such that the country’s fate does not lie in the actions or inaction of one or two or three men.
From Independence through 2002, we were ruled by two different strongmen with a fanya fujo uone attitude. I have always maintained some of that attitude is still necessary today to straighten out certain recalcitrant characters—but that is for another day.
Following promulgation of the 2010 Constitution, the presidency was defanged and even though that worked okay under retired President Mwai Kibaki, a good case can be made it is time to put some of the fangs back.
We cannot have people behaving and believing that there is only one person who can save them from their misery.
This is not true, or more accurately, this is a fallacy because who that is depends on who you ask, and their tribal lineage and/or blind loyalty and support.
Given our history, things as they exist now and in the near future, yes, our country is bigger than one man, but we will be far better off following and supporting two men.
These are the two men who have thus far brought us peace and some prosperity since their historic handshake, so we must see through their efforts by rallying behind them.
Anything else is recipe for going backwards.
Samuel Omwenga is a legal analyst and political commentator