Post by Onyango Oloo on Nov 21, 2005 16:14:33 GMT 3
A Provisional Field Dispatch from Onyango Oloo in Mombasa...
UNEDITED
Voters wait to cast their ballot at Buru Buru primay school, Nairobi. There were long queues in most stations by the time the polling stations opened at 7am today. Pic/Joseph Mathenge, Daily Nation
Snaking queues of voters who turned up early morning to cast their ballot at one of the centres in Lang’ata constituency, Nairobi.- from the Standard
I have started filing this report approximately four minutes to three o'clock on an East African afternoon. I know my former neighbours in Montreal and Toronto have just started stirring from their vitanda.
The only reason I did not vote NO is because I am not a registered voter due to some peculiar circumstances that need not detain us at this point in time.
So the next best thing was to actually go out into the community and observe first hand how the local wananchi were dealing with the rigours of the day.
Since it is not too far from the area near the Mombasa Stadium where I grew up in the seventies, I decided to stroll through the Sparki, Buxton, Majengo Sokoni, Sakina, Msaji and Sega neighbourhoods on the island core of Kenya's second largest city and second oldest(after Lamu) town.
The first thing which struck me as remarkable at the Sokoni (market) area was the way folks were going on with their shughulis of kuuza uuza nyanya, biringanya, suukuuma wiki, viazi, samaki, maharagwe, machungwa, ndizi, maembe, nyama ya ngombe, live chickens and so on. On almost every stall there was a transistor radio tuned to one of the mainstream station blaring away its live updates on the ongoing voting. Here and there I could here comments like: "tunaenda kuzika ndizi!" ("we are going to bury the bananas!"). There was chatter here and there about the referendum.
From the market we strolled along the road which passes in front of the Majengo Village Hall. Zooming past us we saw a five vehicle convoy full of young men which came to an abrupt stop a few dozen metres in front of us. A small crowd spontaneously gathered and someone whispered that it was the mayor,
the Orange loving Mheshimiwa Taib. Apparently this was a pre-arranged media event for the NTV cameras and micriophones were soon thrust in front of Mr Taib's face. The ever articulate mayor thanked Mombasa residents for turning out in huge numbers to vote Orange. He then revealed that he had just come from a polling station near the Mombasa Stadium where he had been informed that it had taken five people an entire hour to vote, imputing some underhanded politcal machinations in the official foot-dragging. He further revealed that he had been informed that at the particular polling station where we were, some councillors and former councillors belonging to the Yes side had been openly bribing voters with cash handouts to the tune of Shs. 100 each.
Mr Taib's claims bolstered fears I had heard via my cellphone the previous day which had told me that four stuffed ballot boxes had been found in Mombasa. I introduced myself to the Mombasa mayor and asked him directly if I had a message for Kenyans abroad and he said that the referendum issue was a matter that united Kenyans inside and outside the country and therefore should be seen as an aspect of the struggle for democratic rights.
When I was walking away from the Majengo Village Hall I passed through the narrow vichochoro of the Msaji slum, gingerly contorting myself past the open mitaro. Just before I reached the bank of dukas along the southern side of Jomo Kenyatta Avenue- just opposite the Sega market- I stopped to buy some coconut flavoured mbaazi with some home made chapati from a thirty something Mswahili woman. In the midst of our transaction, I asked her casually if she had voted and who she had voted for. Just as non-chalantly she calmly countered that she had not even bothered to register as a voter. In her opinion she felt that BOTH sides were duping the wananchi and that the whole referendum exercise was a waste of time...
A few minutes ago, just before I logged on to file this report, a comrade of mine monitoring the exercise in Nairobi called me on my cell to provide me with an update. He informed me that he had visited 15 earlier station. He told me that the problem he had encountered earlier on at Kibera Primary School where 200 were temporarily blocked from casting their vote had now been resolved; he also told me of reports of marked ballot papers being unearthed in Kisauni. He however stressed that this was not linked to any malice and was therefore not a deliberate rigging attempt; he said that there were problems in Loresho at the KTTC where some people had been turned away; according to one of the top Orange leaders, an earlier problem in Mombasa where 2,000 people were being turned away has now been resolved; Kuria is turning out heavily for the NO camp; according to another cabinet minister, the turn out in Nyanza is satisfying; there were some problems in Embakasi with voters being turned away but that was also being resolved; in Kisii the ballot papers were delivered late and it appears the polling stations will open until past the official closing time; voters did not start casting their ballots in Garissa until 11 am; a Mohammed Adam from Busia called in live to KTN to complain that when he showed up to vote, he was informed that he was officially dead; yesterday a regular armed robbery in Kericho in which gun shots were hired earlier had terrified voters in the area; in Bomet and Mt.Elgon everything was hunky dory although in Bungoma town there was a bit of a problem with an attempt to intefere with Orange agents that had been stubbornly resisted.
Here are some SMS messages delivered to my mobile phone:
"Our economic and political gain is under threat. We must rally our 4 million votes 2 support the draft constitution. The draft will guarantee the house of Mumbi political and economic dominance in the next 100 years. Pass this message txt to 10 members from the house of Mumbi...( this text message is being circulated to Kikuyus 2 vote 4 project)...
"Our father in Bomas, Orange be your name.Your Orange kingdom come. Your constitution will be done in referendum as it was passed in Bomas. Give us orange day by day as our daily bread. And forgive us our sins as we forgive banana people who are indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation to eat banana. But deliver us from the hands of Mount Kenya Mafia amen."
"Huku sawa kwisha piga kura low turn out till evening as usual last minute"
" 'Leo atajuwa pumbavu ni nani'- remark by a voter who's just cast his vote"
When I went back to where I am staying, I saw on television Likoni MP Shakombo being turned away because he had showed up at the polling station WITHOUT ANY ID and expected to be allowed to vote simply because he was the MP.
Here in Mombasa the local residents are fairly calm. The central business district looks like an ideal setting for a movie called "Kenyan Ghost Town" even though this particular cyber cafe and its rival across the corridor are open- as are many other businesses.
I have been writing for an hour- the polls close in about 55 minutes from this point in my paragraph.
My contacts on the ground in Mombasa, Nairobi and other parts of the country- especially the Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western are cautiously optimistic that the Orange team is going to pull off their expected victory.
There is no real system of exit polling- but I can confirm that my brother, two of my cousins and at least two dozen former schoolmates, neighbours and friends have cast their vote for Orange. My mshikaji's teen son was definitely going to vote- but he kept his preferences a carefully guarded secret.
It is IMPOSSIBLE at 4:09 PM East African time to say with authority who has won the referendum vote.
I will file another report tomorrow after the official results have started trickling in...
BREAKING NEWS at 4:58 PM:
Three people were caught dishing out bribes in Majengo, Mombasa after a deft POLICE sting operation.
BREAKING NEWS at 5:44 PM East African local time:
SMS informs me: 'Violence erupts in Kibera and Kayole".
See also this Reuters story filed on Sunday quoting Raila Odinga as saying that he is ready for the sack:
za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-11-21T062716Z_01_ALL123223_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-KENYA-REFERENDUM-ODINGA-20051121.XML
Onyango Oloo
Mombasa
UNEDITED
Voters wait to cast their ballot at Buru Buru primay school, Nairobi. There were long queues in most stations by the time the polling stations opened at 7am today. Pic/Joseph Mathenge, Daily Nation
Snaking queues of voters who turned up early morning to cast their ballot at one of the centres in Lang’ata constituency, Nairobi.- from the Standard
I have started filing this report approximately four minutes to three o'clock on an East African afternoon. I know my former neighbours in Montreal and Toronto have just started stirring from their vitanda.
The only reason I did not vote NO is because I am not a registered voter due to some peculiar circumstances that need not detain us at this point in time.
So the next best thing was to actually go out into the community and observe first hand how the local wananchi were dealing with the rigours of the day.
Since it is not too far from the area near the Mombasa Stadium where I grew up in the seventies, I decided to stroll through the Sparki, Buxton, Majengo Sokoni, Sakina, Msaji and Sega neighbourhoods on the island core of Kenya's second largest city and second oldest(after Lamu) town.
The first thing which struck me as remarkable at the Sokoni (market) area was the way folks were going on with their shughulis of kuuza uuza nyanya, biringanya, suukuuma wiki, viazi, samaki, maharagwe, machungwa, ndizi, maembe, nyama ya ngombe, live chickens and so on. On almost every stall there was a transistor radio tuned to one of the mainstream station blaring away its live updates on the ongoing voting. Here and there I could here comments like: "tunaenda kuzika ndizi!" ("we are going to bury the bananas!"). There was chatter here and there about the referendum.
From the market we strolled along the road which passes in front of the Majengo Village Hall. Zooming past us we saw a five vehicle convoy full of young men which came to an abrupt stop a few dozen metres in front of us. A small crowd spontaneously gathered and someone whispered that it was the mayor,
the Orange loving Mheshimiwa Taib. Apparently this was a pre-arranged media event for the NTV cameras and micriophones were soon thrust in front of Mr Taib's face. The ever articulate mayor thanked Mombasa residents for turning out in huge numbers to vote Orange. He then revealed that he had just come from a polling station near the Mombasa Stadium where he had been informed that it had taken five people an entire hour to vote, imputing some underhanded politcal machinations in the official foot-dragging. He further revealed that he had been informed that at the particular polling station where we were, some councillors and former councillors belonging to the Yes side had been openly bribing voters with cash handouts to the tune of Shs. 100 each.
Mr Taib's claims bolstered fears I had heard via my cellphone the previous day which had told me that four stuffed ballot boxes had been found in Mombasa. I introduced myself to the Mombasa mayor and asked him directly if I had a message for Kenyans abroad and he said that the referendum issue was a matter that united Kenyans inside and outside the country and therefore should be seen as an aspect of the struggle for democratic rights.
When I was walking away from the Majengo Village Hall I passed through the narrow vichochoro of the Msaji slum, gingerly contorting myself past the open mitaro. Just before I reached the bank of dukas along the southern side of Jomo Kenyatta Avenue- just opposite the Sega market- I stopped to buy some coconut flavoured mbaazi with some home made chapati from a thirty something Mswahili woman. In the midst of our transaction, I asked her casually if she had voted and who she had voted for. Just as non-chalantly she calmly countered that she had not even bothered to register as a voter. In her opinion she felt that BOTH sides were duping the wananchi and that the whole referendum exercise was a waste of time...
A few minutes ago, just before I logged on to file this report, a comrade of mine monitoring the exercise in Nairobi called me on my cell to provide me with an update. He informed me that he had visited 15 earlier station. He told me that the problem he had encountered earlier on at Kibera Primary School where 200 were temporarily blocked from casting their vote had now been resolved; he also told me of reports of marked ballot papers being unearthed in Kisauni. He however stressed that this was not linked to any malice and was therefore not a deliberate rigging attempt; he said that there were problems in Loresho at the KTTC where some people had been turned away; according to one of the top Orange leaders, an earlier problem in Mombasa where 2,000 people were being turned away has now been resolved; Kuria is turning out heavily for the NO camp; according to another cabinet minister, the turn out in Nyanza is satisfying; there were some problems in Embakasi with voters being turned away but that was also being resolved; in Kisii the ballot papers were delivered late and it appears the polling stations will open until past the official closing time; voters did not start casting their ballots in Garissa until 11 am; a Mohammed Adam from Busia called in live to KTN to complain that when he showed up to vote, he was informed that he was officially dead; yesterday a regular armed robbery in Kericho in which gun shots were hired earlier had terrified voters in the area; in Bomet and Mt.Elgon everything was hunky dory although in Bungoma town there was a bit of a problem with an attempt to intefere with Orange agents that had been stubbornly resisted.
Here are some SMS messages delivered to my mobile phone:
"Our economic and political gain is under threat. We must rally our 4 million votes 2 support the draft constitution. The draft will guarantee the house of Mumbi political and economic dominance in the next 100 years. Pass this message txt to 10 members from the house of Mumbi...( this text message is being circulated to Kikuyus 2 vote 4 project)...
"Our father in Bomas, Orange be your name.Your Orange kingdom come. Your constitution will be done in referendum as it was passed in Bomas. Give us orange day by day as our daily bread. And forgive us our sins as we forgive banana people who are indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation to eat banana. But deliver us from the hands of Mount Kenya Mafia amen."
"Huku sawa kwisha piga kura low turn out till evening as usual last minute"
" 'Leo atajuwa pumbavu ni nani'- remark by a voter who's just cast his vote"
When I went back to where I am staying, I saw on television Likoni MP Shakombo being turned away because he had showed up at the polling station WITHOUT ANY ID and expected to be allowed to vote simply because he was the MP.
Here in Mombasa the local residents are fairly calm. The central business district looks like an ideal setting for a movie called "Kenyan Ghost Town" even though this particular cyber cafe and its rival across the corridor are open- as are many other businesses.
I have been writing for an hour- the polls close in about 55 minutes from this point in my paragraph.
My contacts on the ground in Mombasa, Nairobi and other parts of the country- especially the Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western are cautiously optimistic that the Orange team is going to pull off their expected victory.
There is no real system of exit polling- but I can confirm that my brother, two of my cousins and at least two dozen former schoolmates, neighbours and friends have cast their vote for Orange. My mshikaji's teen son was definitely going to vote- but he kept his preferences a carefully guarded secret.
It is IMPOSSIBLE at 4:09 PM East African time to say with authority who has won the referendum vote.
I will file another report tomorrow after the official results have started trickling in...
BREAKING NEWS at 4:58 PM:
Three people were caught dishing out bribes in Majengo, Mombasa after a deft POLICE sting operation.
BREAKING NEWS at 5:44 PM East African local time:
SMS informs me: 'Violence erupts in Kibera and Kayole".
See also this Reuters story filed on Sunday quoting Raila Odinga as saying that he is ready for the sack:
za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-11-21T062716Z_01_ALL123223_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-KENYA-REFERENDUM-ODINGA-20051121.XML
Onyango Oloo
Mombasa
