The calendar year in Kenya ends with the risky certainty that the Government can look forward to the beginning of the electoral campaign, in view of the next elections in August 2022, with a majority in parliament. Yesterday, in fact, a heated vote was held in Nairobi, which saw the side loyal to President Uhuru Kenyatta and his current ally Raila Odinga, prevail over that part of the elected majority that is breaking away in view of the next electoral round, to join the coalitions belonging to Vice President William Ruto, who will present himself at the national elections as a credible opponent of Odinga (given that Kenyatta, at the end of his second term, will not be able to do so) and those represented by other minor leaders, belonging to other populous tribes of the country, gathered in the OKA coalition (Gideon Moi, Musalia Mudavadi, Moses Wetangula and Kalonzo Musyoka). The amendment that did not pass in parliament called in a nutshell for parliamentarians to be able to "put their feet in two shoes" in the run-up to the elections, remaining in the governing coalition with their own office while simultaneously approaching another parliamentary group that refers to possible challengers who will go on to represent the opposition.
The heated discussion in parliament has also degenerated into a brawl, with some honorable struck by fists and bottles, a sign that the tension is already at maximum levels.
In the end the most logical and democratic line prevailed, but it is only the last political chapter of 2021 and the beginning of a new year in which other political debates and twists and turns are surely expected.
Meanwhile, at the end of January, whoever runs in the next elections is expected to leave government positions, starting with Vice President Ruto, elected with a majority but now able to sustain his candidacy, with the support of the party he founded, UDA.
They will certainly be seven fundamental months for the future of this country and for its stability, while the world is watching because the fate of a nation like Kenya, in economic growth and recovery after the stop of the pandemic, as well as strategically important given the current political situation in Ethiopia and the long-standing and never credible solution in Somalia.