Election diary: Life without Moi

The young man at the Kenya Airways counter at Mombasa airport seems quite friendly.

With a smile, he lets my Somali colleague carry his huge radio set onto the plane.

I am leaving behind a town nursing a massive hangover and in a deep slumber after the opposition's clean sweep in Friday's poll.

It's a rather jerky flight from Mombasa to Nairobi - but my thoughts are elsewhere.

At 27,000 ft above sea level, I can pretend to have a bird's eye view of this nation, which is on the verge of re-inventing itself.

A young, handsome man who promised so much lost because he was in the wrong party.

On the way to State House is a rather old man who was reduced to a wheelchair in the final days of the run-up to the election by a freak car accident.

Both men represent what's old and what's new in Kenya - the old repackaged as the new and the truly new tainted by a horrible past.

In the shadows, a man destined for his rocking chair at his home in the Rift Valley.

Three men making history in their own way - Uhuru Kenyatta conceding defeat; Mwai Kibaki taking over majestically; and Daniel Toroitich arap Moi stepping down almost gracefully.

Touchdown.

Moi's official portrait still stares down coldly in the arrival section.

A chatty taxi driver rambles on about the Rainbow Coalition's victory and what a great future Kenya now has. Amazingly, other motorists on Uhuru Highway seem more composed than usual.

Ten days is a short time in the life of city.

But in that period, Nairobi has managed to shed its old Moi image and embrace a new, gentle Kibaki face.

As they now say here - everything is possible without Moi.

Click here to read Gray Phombeah's previous election diary