Kenyatta Wins Presidency: Western Powers (white people) Eager to Control Kenya's Oil Deposits

From [HERE] Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s founding president, narrowly won last Monday's presidential election outright, defeating main rival Prime Minister Raila Odinga, according to provisional results released early Saturday. Kenyatta won 50.03 percent of votes cast against 43.28 percent for Odinga, news agencies reported. Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is due to announce the official result on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Kenyatta faces trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague in July for crimes against humanity for his alleged role in fueling communal violence after the 2007 election. His running mate, William Ruto, faces similar charges. More than 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others forced from their homes in the unrest.

Although Kenya is the biggest and most advanced economy in east and central Africa and a minority of the urban population often leaves a misleading impression of affluence, Kenya is still a poor developing country with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.509, putting the country at position 143 out of 185 – one of the lowest in the world and half of Kenyans live in absolute poverty.

Kenya has proven oil deposits in Turkana District: President Mwai Kibaki announced on 26 March 2012 that Tullow Oil, an Anglo-Irish oil exploration firm, had struck oil but its commercial viability and subsequent production would take about three years to confirm.

Early in 2006 Chinese President Hu Jintao signed an oil exploration contract with Kenya, part of a series of deals designed to keep Africa's natural resources flowing to China's rapidly expanding economy.

The deal allowed for China's state-controlled offshore oil and gas company, CNOOC, to prospect for oil in Kenya, which is just beginning to drill its first exploratory wells on the borders of Sudan and Somalia and in coastal waters. There are formal estimates of the possible reserves of oil discovered. [MORE]

British company Tullow Oil is leading in oil exploration activities in Kenya with its discovery of commercially viable oil deposits in Turkana, the northwest region of Kenya’s northern frontier region.

United States has a naval and air base in Lamu, along the Kenyan coast while Britain has a military training base in Kenya that holds up to 10,000 troops at any time in Nanyuki near the equator, the only such base in a developing country. [MORE]

Kenya is the regional hub for companies including General Electric Co. (GE), Pfizer Inc. and Huawei Technology Co. and it may become an oil producer after Tullow Oil Plc (TLW) discovered the first crude deposits in the nation’s northwest a year ago. 

Kenya is an important security ally of the West. It has troops participating in the United Nations-backed peacekeeping mission in Somalia, where the government is fighting al-Qaeda- linked militants.

Aside from the president, voters chose 290 lawmakers as well as governors, women’s representatives and senators for 47 counties and 1,450 delegates for county assemblies at the March 4 vote. Kenya enacted a constitution in 2010 that created a devolved government to help empower marginalized communities. [MORE]

In his first address after the election, Kenyatta, charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, assured his commitment to the ICC process, and wanted the international community to accept his presidency.

“We recognize and accept our international obligations and will cooperate with international institutions,” he said, expecting the international community to respect the sovereign will of the people of Kenya.

The ICC is preparing to commit four key politicians to a full trial to emphasize the need to put an end to ethnicised politics. Two of the four individuals who have been accused by the world court for masterminding the 2007 post elections are criss-crossing the country in search of votes as they seek presidency.

The ICC prosecutor has always said the four accused will have a fair trial and an equal opportunity to refute the allegations, adding that their guilt or innocence will be established by the Judges at the conclusion of these trials.

The 2007/08 post-election violence, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and up to 650,000 were displaced, was blamed on the fierce competition for a share of the national wealth between the various tribal groups. Most of it had to do with the distribution of land and access to state power.

Western powers had cautioned Kenyans against consequences of their choices in the general elections, in which millions of Kenyans cast their votes to make their voice.

Land rights activist Odenda Lumumba, also coordinator for non- profit group Kenya Land Alliance National Coordinator, told Xinhua that sanctions by the international community, especially United States and Britain, may not come immediately as those nations are still weighing in how to take care of their interest in Kenya.