Jubilee Party supporters hurl stones to NASA supporters along Moi Avenue as they countered the demonstrations in the CBD on October 11, 2017. [Photo: the-star.co.ke]The future does not look rosy following Raila Odinga’s decision to skip the repeat election, despite having secured a historic Supreme Court annulment of August 8 presidential poll.Independent journalist Macharia Gaitho has said that President Uhuru Kenyatta may win an overwhelming 99.99 percent of the vote in the fashion of all African dictators, but that still will not amount to a clear mandate."He will thus embark on his second and final term suffering a crisis of legitimacy, President of the Jubilee coalition rather than the President of the Republic of Kenya," Gaitho says in his regular column on Tuesday Daily Nation.But to assert his authority, Gaitho says, violent and brutal repression, as 'favoured by acting Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i', might be Uhuru's way to contain those opposed to him, but he notes it will only be for a while."Simply put, Kenya cannot afford to go to the repeat poll while so fractured. It may be too late to postpone the election, but it is not too late for Kenyans of goodwill to reason together and work out a settlement that at least cools tempers," he adds.Religious groupings, the business sector, civil society, the labour movement, media, professional associations and others, Gaitho says, can provide the much-needed leadership in this regard. He, however, warns that they should first abandon their partisan positions and work towards what is right and just.

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