For 39 years, the Kenya African National Union had governed Kenya. It had won independence, built the nation and then gradually hollowed out its institutions. In December 2002, Kenyans voted in what was widely seen as the first genuinely free election since independence.
Mwai Kibaki, running for the National Rainbow Coalition, won 62 percent of the vote against KANU's Uhuru Kenyatta. When the results were announced, Kenyans poured into the streets singing Yote yawezekana bila Moi. Everything is possible without Moi.
The euphoria was enormous. For one brief, electric moment, everything seemed possible.