Kenyan Election Update

As the East African nation braces for its General Election on August 8th the battle lines have been drawn. The incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta from the Jubilee party is facing strong competition from the opposition leader Raila Odinga. He is part of the National Super Alliance (NASA) Coalition. Uhuru has held 400 political rallies and Raila 450 since the IEBC cleared them to run for President on May 29. They have crisscrossed the country and spent tens of millions of dollars wooing the 19 million voters registered to vote in the upcoming election. Uhuru is banking on his development agenda. Under his four year term, his administration has prioritized infrastructure development as a key pillar for economic growth. The sea port of Mombasa has been expanded while a 3.2 billion dollar railway linking the port city Mombasa and the capital Nairobi has recently been completed. The administration has also embarked on business reforms which have improved the country's rankings on the ease of doing business. Foreign policy has been another key pillar as the country has hosted several dignitaries and conferences including Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, Pope Francis president Barack Obama among others. This has shown that the world recognizes the importance of the country not only in regional matters but on a global scale.The opposition leader is offering alternative leadership and has promised to implement the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission which seeks to address the country's unresolved land issues. He has also vowed to eliminate corruption in the public sector and increase the resources of the devolved counties in the country.
With three weeks to the election it will be interesting to see how the public decides.