Online Poll shows Kah Walla leading Paul Biya

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Cameroonians head to the polls on the 9th of October 2011 to elect a new president. Resentment and degradation of infrastructure is pushing voters to look for alternatives to the aging Paul Biya who is widely perceived as being out of touch.


A popular website, Cameroon-Info.net is running an online poll. So far, it shows Edith Kah Walla leading Paul Biya who has been ruling the country since 1975. She is the first woman to stand for presidential elections in Cameroon.


As of 10PM Eastern Standard Time, she has 34.5% of the votes and is trailed a distant second by incumbent, the visibly tired Paul Biya with 17.3%. In an open, free and failr electoral process, Edith Kah Walla will be the winner, but Paul Biya is using the whole state machinery for his campain. In fact, he has yet to make a single campaign speech or statement. 


It is sad that Paul Biya who couldn't care what happens to the average Cameroonian will be shooed in by his hand-picked Elecam, whereas serious candidates who are in daily touch with the population like Kah Walla will have the door closed on their fingers. One day, just one day, the trends in these polls will become reality..

Cameroon: SCNC Separatists arrested in Buea.

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With 7 days to presidential elections, the Central African nation is in the throes of campaigns for high office.  However, the underlying socio-economic tensions in the country are surfaceing. 
There was an armed attack last week in the country's biggest city - Douala - and dissatisfaction with the ruler for the past 29 years Paul Biya is now bubbling to the surface.


On October 1st, the anniversary of the day the two parts of the country reunited, activists who feel the former English speaking part of  the country has been marginalized were arrested in Buea, capital of the South west Region of the country.


This story has been picked up by the wire news agencies and more on this as we get clear information.

Cameroon: How not to become president...

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With barely a week to the end of presidential election campaigns, Cameroonians have been dealt with a slew of oddball characters who are running for high office. You have the mainstream candidates like Paul Biya and Adamu Ndam Njoya. People who have honed their teeth through years of experience working with people. 

Then you have the also-rans. These are the ones looking to beef up their CVs, hope for a presidential appointment to some dormant state-funded structure where they can gain employment, or those who had fallen from grace and now want to prove that they have a constituency and are entitled to a piece of the national cake. Jean Jacques Ekindi falls into this category.



Finally, the fun part. These are the weirdos, the hack jobs, the nuts, the gate crashers. They are in for the thrill of it. They have over-bloated personalities and cannot understand why everyone does not see them in the same light they perceive themselves. They are a danger to society and must be shunned - at least until cured of their malady. Alas, it is presidential election campaign season, so let us have fun while it lasts. Candidates in this category include 'rev" Bertin Kisob, and of course, a shiny new entrant, Mr Jean Njeunga.


Jean Njeunga is a likable enough individual. He looks like one of those businessmen in suits you could see in Akwa, Douala, stepping out of a luxury vehicle. All is well until he starts to speak. He shows no mastery of the French language - a basic requirement of any leader- uses an abundance of street level slang and comes across generally as someone who is uncultured and brusque in his ways.   


He has little knowledge of the geography of Cameroon. When asked the surface area of the country, he has no idea and there is an uneasy silence in the studio. ( Cameroon is 475,442 km²   large and is the 54th biggest country on earth by surface area). He has little knowledge of the electoral process, says water is free in Europe, but heated water is what is billed!


He has not heard of Wikileaks and the major revelations about Cameroon, which is a major factor in the current presidential election. Many times, he utters ideas that even trained journalists like Susan Kalla Lobe find hard to subdue their bewilderment.


Sadly, people like Mr Jean Njeunga steal the spotlight from more serious candidates like Edith Kah Walla who have serious socio-economic and developmental programs for the future of the country.


He states that he is an elder in his church. I can only imagine the ruckus he creates during meetings of elders. His media outing is a total failure and if he has succeeded in anything, it is to make a fool of himself, his congregation and his family. May someone close to him tell him the truth, - he should return to his stall and continue hawking his wares. He is no politician, period.

Kah Walla profiled in NEWSWEEK

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Leading Cameroonian presidential candidate Edith Kah Walla has been profiled in the prestigious weekly International magazine Newsweek. The edition of September 26th 2011 features stories of women who are winning in various walks of life across the globe. The front page has Brazil's wildly popular president, Dilma Rousseff.


For decades, Newsweek has served as an avant-garde publication that is a harbinger of political and socio-economic trends. Having a Cameroonian in the news magazine is a rare occurrence, and highlights how meaningful change affecting the lives of thousands, can come from one individual, in this case, Edith Kah Walla.

The Newsweek article furthermore, ranks countries and their friendliness to women. There are the best places to be a woman such as Canada which comes in third, and then the bottom of the barrel,with countries like Chad ranking as the worst place to be a woman in 2011. Cameroon comes a close number seventeen, sandwiched between Cote d'Ivoire (16) and the Central African Republic (18).


The amazing story about this article by Newsweek is that notwithstanding all the odds against her, Kah Walla still succeeds in going against convention and is running for president of her country - Cameroon.




Other women profiled include the Prime Minister of Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, and the President of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla.


Elevating Kah Walla to the world stage is an honor for Cameroon and surely, a good sign if she were to win the presidential election. History will note that for once in Cameroon, a woman stood against the might of the ruling Cameroon people's Democratic Movement (CPDM) party-State machinery. May other women follow her lead when they go to the ballot on October 9th.