Ex-President Mahama addressing Kenyan journalists
GHANA’S EX-PRESIDENT John Dramani Mahama has bemoaned the huge frustration associated with losing an election, and has appealed to Kenyans to maintain peace amidst fears of potential post-election violence in that country.
Mr. Mahama, who is still nursing the injury of being humiliatingly defeated by Nana Akufo-Addo – the then standard bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) – in the 2016 presidential election, is heading the Commonwealth Observer Mission that monitored Tuesday’s general election in Kenya.
In an address to Kenyans through the local media, the former Ghanaian leader observed that losing an election can be “very frustrating.”
That, according to him, is because it prevents one from achieving a set goal, stressing that “it is not easy to lose an election [because] it can be very disappointing.”
Tension is reportedly mounting in Kenya following protests by the major opposition leader, Raila Odinga, of the National Super Alliance (NASA), that provisional results that had trickled in after the Tuesday election, which put incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta in a ‘comfortable’ lead, had allegedly been tempered with.
The opposition claims the IT set-up of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was hacked, and the results subsequently manipulated.
That has reportedly sparked violent protests in some parts of Kenya, especially in his (Odinga’s) stronghold and home region of Kisumu, allegedly resulting in the death of at least five people, and injuring many others.
Kenyan security forces and angry supporters have been clashing, with car tyres being set ablaze on streets in broad day light.
‘Gracious Losser’
But Mr. Mahama, who woefully lost his bid to get re-elected for a second successive term as President of the Republic of Ghana, told his Kenyan counterparts that one earns a lot of respect when he or she accepts the verdict of the people.
Appealing to Kenya politicians on Thursday, the former president said but what makes one a “gracious loser” is when he or she accepts the decision of the people to “choose someone over you.”
Early results put the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta of the Jubilee Party ahead of his long-time political rival, Raila Odinga.
Mr. Mahama appealed, “All Kenyans should be patient [and] let the process play out” ahead of the official announcement of the winner of the presidential poll by IEBC.
Furthermore, he called on political leaders in Kenya “to rise to the occasion” and urged the leadership of that country to ensure that Kenya does not “burn because of an election.”
BY Melvin Tarlue