Unrest in Kenya, flower trade continues

Kenya's Supreme Court nullified President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election on September 1, and the re-run is today. The anticipated unrest arose this morning, but seems to be limited to certain areas. "There are some issues where protesters are boycotting the poll and clashing with the police, but around 70 percent of the country is calm", says a Kenyan grower. He says the situation in the flower growing areas Naivasha and Nakuru is completely peaceful and calm. The flower supply does not seem to be affected.

According to this grower, the majority of the flower farms are not working today. "As it is a re-run of the election, many farms are giving their workers a full day to vote. And in fact, many high altitude farms in Nakuru have cold and rainy weather, so one day will not make a difference to the cut stage." And the few that are working, or working a few hours, do not seem to experience any problems. "Most of the farms will be in operation again tomorrow."

Even though it's the first time that an election has been nullified, elections in Kenya often go hand in hand with unrest. In the 2007 edition, the flower trade suffered from flights being cancelled, and production stagnated. Fortunately, Kenyan flower farms and their sales were not affected that much by the post-election unrest over the last months, nor do they seem to be affected by the unrest concerning this re-election.

Click here to read more on the unrest surrounding Kenya's election re-run in this article of reuters.com, published this morning.