• The hostile and tense political situation in Kenya has left many a Kenyan drenched in agonizing uncertainty. On one hand, it seems as if the country may slide back into the precarious position of 2007, and on the other, it seems that the fate of Kenya's politics has been sealed already.

    A re-run of the elections was done, in what many have viewed as an embarrassing and sham election. The re-run saw staunch opposition leader Raila Odinga calling for a massive boycott, arguing that he could not partake in an election presided over by biased people at the country's electoral body, IEBC. The Supreme Court had nullified the results of the first election citing "irregularities and illegalities."

    Two weeks before the vote, Odinga announced he would not participate, claiming it would not be free and fair, urging his followers to observe a boycott, which they did en masse with mass protests blocking polling in four of Kenya's 47 counties.

    His withdrawal handed Kenyatta a landslide victory, in which he took 98% of the vote.

    But it was something of a Pyrrhic victory, with only 38.8% of registered voters casting their ballots. Observers warn the result is likely to face a host of new legal challenges - a fact acknowledged by Kenyatta himself.

    But is seems Kenyatta will not be relinquishing power no matter what. He is prepared to face any legal hurdles to his presidency that lie in his way.  In his victory speech, Kenyatta made a telling admission, saying that accepting the court's ruling overturning was "a very difficult and painful decision". And he said he would be prepared to do the same again.

    "My victory today is just part of a process that is likely to once again be subjected to a constitutional test through our courts, and as I have demonstrated repeatedly, I will submit to this constitutional path, no matter its outcomes." While he may not go through the violent way in which Kibaki defended his seat in 2007, he could do the same, but through different methods.

    Uhuru Kenyatta has been accused of threatening the judiciary and also threatening the electoral commission. When the results were nullified, he threatened the judiciary, saying that the will of 46 million people could not be decided by six judges. The head at the IEBC fled to the United States saying that she was receiving death threats. These are the stratagems that Kenyatta will use in copying from his predecessors, Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki who defended their presidencies in situations that were tense, and who defended their presidencies at huge costs. 

    Kenyatta lost to Mwai Kibaki in the 2007 elections and later allied with him, helping him retain the presidency, in an arrangement that saw Odinga being the Prime Minister and Kenyatta being one of the deputies. Maybe in that period Kenyatta absorbed the reluctance of Mwai Kibaki to relinquish power, and sought to devise new tricks in order to maintain power.