Today Kenyans turned up in thousands to vote for or against the proposed constitution and it was seriously heart-warming to observe that not a single incidence was recorded. In the not so distant past, the violence and mayhem we experienced in 2007 after the General Elections was awful. Thousands of people lost their lives, were rendered homeless and it was really very sad to note that Kenya had probably regressed 40 years after the violence we experienced.

Today was fabulous and hopefully in the coming days as the results start coming in we will respect the decision of Kenyans – whether they choose a Yes or a No.

The process itself was a pretty peaceful one. At all voting stations, which were mostly schools, the classrooms were streamed with the first letter of your last name and divided alphabetically. Made sense! I went in to get my voting sorted at around 8am and was out in no time. I didn’t have to stand in the long queues because I had a media privilege card that would allow me to skip the line, vote and get out but I actually didn’t have to use it. I just walked into the room allocated to the letter of my surname and had only one person ahead of me.

All I had to do was show my ID card and the registration card. Now at this point it is important to know that having the document you registered yourself with was very important. So if you turned up with your passport even though you registered with your ID card you were denied the chance to cast a vote. I know of a guy who stood in the line for almost an hour only to be told his registration centre was not the one where he queued. Anyway, after scrutinising the idnetity cards I was given a simple form wher I had to cast my vote and stick into a secured ballot box.

And that was THAT! That’s all it took to get me to cast my vote and as I write this am patiently waiting for the results to start trickling in to see which vote was stronger today.

Either way this is a plea to Kenyans to just take it easy if the results are not the way you voted. Yes and No both need to be given a chance – it is the voice of the country and it needs to be respected. Don’t let it be 2007 all over again. I don’t think our country could take it.