If it’s predictable, it’s preventable; NASA cried foul way before the election and their presidential candidate Raila Odinga was dismissed as a perennial loser. Elections came; IEBC declared the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta the winner amid opposition claims that the vote was rigged.
In an election that had earlier been described as Raila’s ‘last bullet’, he never stopped at the IEBC declaration; he dragged his feet a little but eventually chose to challenge the process that brought the Uhuru ‘victory’ in court.
In fact, the president’s side (Jubilee) urged Raila to go to court if he felt aggrieved, ‘Use the wonderful legal mechanisms’ Kenyatta said but it’s the ruling that stunned Jubilee. The least expected happened their victory was overturned by the Supreme Court. Chief Justice David Maraga declared Uhuru’s re-election, invalid, null and void. New York Times described the ruling as a major service to the rule of law.
The court outcome is the exact opposite of what happened in 2013, Raila’s petition was dismissed and the opposition was urged to accept and move on but what are we experiencing now? The executive led by President Uhuru Kenyatta has launched a scathing attack on the judiciary, calling Supreme Court judges a bunch of crooks and promising to deal with them if he gets re-elected in the fresh polls scheduled for Tuesday, October 17th, 2017. Such warnings have been sent to Mombasa governor Hassan Joho, he was frustrated and his security withdrawn a number of times.
Jubilee had tricked its way back to power, laid back celebrating with their lawyers as well as those of IEBC defending what was not challenged in court, the numbers. Opposition challenged the process that court found unfair. Jubilee knew the court process was not anything new, it was a movie
Kenyans had watched before and knew the script until reality checked in. Kenya became the first country in Africa to declare presidential results invalid.
All these anger being directed to the Judiciary is misplaced; Jubilee relied on their financial muscles to even odds, buy the mainstream media and may be three or four IEBC staffers but they forgot they are facing the most rugged if not fierce opposition leader in Africa.
Raila Odinga is not a featherweight politician, he is never short of surprises and he has been in the game for a minute to be dismissed as one with ‘the last bullet’. With integrity at par with experience and service over ambition, Raila has lived and learned, making major strides ahead and minor steps back. He has unmatched fighting spirit, amazing source of intel plus he is ever relevant with his eyes set on the prize, to clean the system.
As Uhuru struggles with every leaf to save his presidency, Raila, the poster child of Kenyan democracy must be aware that there is no victory without sacrifice. He should ensure no stone is left unturned as he puts up a spirited fight to grab Kenya from ‘Mr. Money Bags’, incorrigible and corrupt to the core individuals salivating to take the burton from President Kenyatta.
Mainstream media also has an opportunity to redeem its soul that they sold to the executive, proper coverage and informing the public is how in the coming fresh polls. Not trooping reporters to read illegal provisional results at the Bomas despite bragging of deploying over three hundred reporters
across the country.
Kenyan media have demonstrated that they can give live coverage to a president threatening judges and black out Kenyans being massacred. That’s what you do if the benefit from the Eurobond loot anyway, abusing the protection you have in the Constitution. It’s amazing how the media for the love of the money has been pocketed by ‘test tube politicians’ who did not fight for its freedom.
Media has failed to break down the voting process, knowledge of the Constitution still remains only with the legal minds when the media is illegally running Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) ads. Authoritative reporting is still lacking despites the media freedom of gains in the new constitution and because of this, Kenyans and the media are looking at the Supreme Court with shock and horror because they have gone ahead of the media.
Jubilee’s Anger Towards Judiciary Is Misplaced And Should Be Directed At IEBC
After a lengthened period of uncertainty, the six judges holding the destiny of Kenyans in papers walked into the Supreme Court to deliver what would later turn out to be a landmark ruling, that nullified the election of president Uhuru as declared by IEBC. In a 4:2 ratio ruling, the court headed by Chief Justice Maraga made three key rulings;
“A declaration is hereby issued that the Presidential Election held on 8th August 2017 was not conducted in accordance with the Constitution and the applicable law rendering the declared result invalid, null and void;
A declaration is hereby issued that the 3rd Respondent was not validly declared as the President elect and that the declaration is invalid, null and void;
An order is hereby issued directing the 1st Respondent to organize and conduct a fresh Presidential Election in strict conformity with the Constitution and the applicable election laws within 60 days of this determination under Article 140(3) of
the Constitution.” And with the powerful pronouncements by the strict CJ Maraga, Uhuru was stripped of his win and Kenyans sent back to the polls once again.
Expectedly, Jubilee having lost to the petition were angered but initially tried to contain it. In a TV address to the nation immediately after the declaration where Maraga was specific in his ruling that IEBC conducted a shambolic process, ignoring the law thereby sabotaging the integrity of the presidential election. A dejected Uhuru accepted the court verdict even though disagreed. And we thought all would end there not knowing a well laid out onslaught on the Judiciary singling out the individual judges who nullified the election had been laid and was about to be unleashed.
From Statehouse, Uhuru together with Jubilee politicians headed straight to Burma market, predominantly occupied by Kikuyu natives and largely Jubilee supporters and this was the breaking ground for the judiciary attack. The President openly called out the judiciary and particularly Maraga a ‘Mkora’ translated as thugs. He alleged that the whites conspired with the judges and we’re bribed together with NASA to cancel his win.
Funny how the president quickly forgot that the same whites praised the election and his own lawyers used the international observer’s clean bill of health on the election in court as a justification that IEBC ran a clean process. Carter Centre led by John Kerry the former US Secretary of states, the European Union amongst key international agencies including United Nations and even world leaders including President Trump and Ban Ki Moon, both congratulated and endorsed his election that turned out to be a sham. Therefore, it was a plain lie for the president to claim that the West conspired against him while all indicators show they were indeed rooting for him.
However, Uhuru and Jubilee are being tactical and the attack on the judiciary and the West is a similar campaign strategy that was run during 2013 when the two principals were before the ICC. Jubilee has perfectly hatched a plan to sacrifice the Judiciary through public execution for their re-election at the expense of democracy and integrity of the court. Like they fabricated in 2013 that the Mzungu worked with Raila to hang them in the Hague thereby mobilizing the Kalenjins and Kikuyus to gang up and reject ‘neo-colonialism’ a false script that somehow played out for them, it is 2013 all over again but this time, the same Mzungu is using Raila but the Supreme Court to take power from them. The ‘Mtu wetu’ hogwash is back in play and they must be saved. But this Mzungu against us narrative is losing taste by every munch, he accused the West of ICC predicament then went ahead to use British lawyers, Jubilee campaigns since 2013 are run by the same Wazungu to date from Tony Blair to Cambridge Analytica.
Thinking rightfully, if Jubilee is satisfied that their win was genuine and the court wasn’t fair then they shouldn’t be okay going into a fresh election with the same IEBC that has cost them the presidency. If there’s anyone that Jubilee should be absolutely angered with then it is the IEBC. The IEBC incompetence cost Uhuru his win and nothing else. By endorsing and insisting with the same suspect electoral body to conduct the fresh elections, Jubilee to me is sending a clear message that they’re okay with a shambolic process, that a shambolic process is beneficial to them and that IEBC is a special partner in crime. Why would you be okay with an injured player in the field if you’re going for a win?
Jubilee for time now has been either in sync with IEBC or speaking for IEBC and even after the nasty expose in the Supreme Court, nothing has changed, in fact, they’ve boosted their support and defence on the same IEBC found guilty of running a fraud election putting into question the real relationship IEBC and Jubilee have. The onslaught on the judiciary by Jubilee is unfortunate and exposes the real colors of the regime and respect to the rule of law. They’re already giving clear signs of authoritarianism and selectivity in respecting the rule of law.
On Saturday, my friend was held up in a meeting to find almost 10 missed calls. They were all from people who wanted to know if she had heard the news about Moi Girls High School fire. She had dropped off her only child a few days earlier at the school. They celebrated her birthday just two weeks ago.
Her daughter was in school, the one place we expect our children to be safe. School, where ignorance is replaced with knowledge through the efforts of hard working, overworked and underpaid teachers.
She rushed there, only to be met by armed police holding batons at the school gate. Let me pause and say this, the Kenya Police response to any disaster is to send armed police. They respond to everything with a show-of-force – a rather colonial tactic.
As my friend and other parents tried to get information on what had transpired and about their children, they kept being stonewalled by the school administration. She decided to visit the hospitals where the injured had been taken but her daughter wasn’t there. In the afternoon she found out that her daughter was in the list of 15 missing girls and the school had eight unidentified bodies. The school told her to go home at around 6 pm and they would get in touch.
Distraught, she went home. 16 hours after the incident happened she received a call; her daughter was among the eight who had perished. They will have to wait for her body to be identified through DNA. She didn’t deserve to die. We, as a country, let her die. We let her and her fellow students die. One lady who is an orphan lost her sibling in the Garissa University attack. On Saturday her small sister died at Moi Girls. My heart mourns with the bereaved families as l write this.
The Moi Girls School fire wasn’t the first of its kind. Unfortunately, if we don’t act with urgency, it will not be the last either. Some of the most memorable, tragic high school fires include Bombolulu Girls (25 girls died) and Kyanguli Secondary (68 dead). In both incidents, Commissions of Inquires were set up and reports produced, but were their recommendations implemented? Why can’t we, as a country, learn from past tragedies and protect our children? The dormitory hosting the girls was originally designed to host 80 girls initially. A few alterations were done and now it houses 300 students.
Moi Girls, where the fire started at 2am (a time when there is zero traffic in Nairobi), is only 10 minutes away from Nairobi Fire Station. Where were the fire fighters? They arrived two hours later and then ran out of water. Kenya has a useless National Disaster Operations Centre manned 24 -hours since 1998. It has failed us. Nairobi is a city of 5 million people and our fire brigade responded to one fire incident late and failed to contain it.
In these painful moments, as families mourn, we need to ask ourselves some hard questions. When we drop our children off to schools, we must know with certainty that dormitories, halls and classrooms have fire exits and extinguishers. Safety drills should be conducted periodically. Just because we pay school fees doesn’t absolve us from the responsibility of ensuring that the schools we take our kids to are safe.
Just because you went to a school where the dormitories were locked from the outside with a padlock doesn’t mean we should allow our children’s dorms to be locked from the outside. It wasn’t right then and it definitely isn’t right now. There are certain standards and regulations that we must ensure are upheld and we must hold our institutions accountable to these. A school should be safe. Our role as parents and teachers is to teach our children good values and instill discipline and care for the environment they study in. We, as a society, are failing in that regard. P.T.A’s and Alumni groups are good avenues for engaging with schools and ensuring our children’s safety.
The Ministry of Education has clear school safety guidelines for disaster and risk reduction – all school dormitory doors should be at least 5ft wide and open outwards. Every dorm should have clearly marked emergency doors in the middle and at the back. Moi Girls’ windows have grills yet the guidelines clearly state, “all windows must be without grills and easily open outwards”. Every dorm should have a fire alarm and fire extinguishers. If your child’s school hasn’t implemented this policy, then the Ministry of Education has failed to enforce these simple life saving guidelines and it’s time we as parents enforce them. Let us not wait until it is too late. The time is now. Today.
May the eight young souls, whose lives were cut short in their prime, Rest In Peace. We salute the two brave security guards who died saving lives. May God give strength to their families. To the injured, we wish you a quick recovery and we are praying for you. To the rest of us, commit to make Kenya better where you are.
Kenya’s supreme court has struck a blow for democracy and the rule of law that should resonate beyond the country’s borders, potentially for years to come. By a two-thirds majority, the judges in Nairobi ruled with great courage on Friday to annul results from last month’s elections which gave the president, Uhuru Kenyatta, his second hotly disputed election victory in four years. In so doing, they have set a momentous precedent which will require the vote to be re-run within 60 days.
Since the end of the cold war and the advent of multi-party politics across most of Africa, opposition groups who believe they have been cheated at the ballot box are frequently called on to take their grievances off the streets and into the courts. Until now, such challenges have been uniformly thrown out, sometimes because they lack legitimacy, but in many instances because of the hold that the executive tends to have over the judiciary.
The Kenyan ruling is the first of its kind in Africa where instead judges have marked their independence as well as their ability to act as a check on the abuse of power — establishing in fact and not just principle that there can be a nonpartisan legal framework in which to settle disputed election outcomes. The many regimes across the continent who exploit incumbency to perpetuate their rule through patronage, oppression, and manipulation of the vote have been put on notice.
So to have those international election observers whose formulaic rubber stamping of results has become increasingly insidious — notably in undermining their own credibility, but also in spreading cynicism among the electorate. Since 2007 when Kenya went to the brink of civil war in the wake of polls marred by fraud, there has been a tendency among such observers to brush aside all manner of irregularities in the interests of preserving peace.
John Kerry, the former US secretary of state who was representing the Carter Center during the most recent electoral showdown, went further when he commended the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for its work before it had completed it and urged the opposition presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, to accept defeat and “move on”. In so doing, he appeared guilty of “the soft bigotry of low expectations” to borrow a phrase coined by his own nemesis George W Bush.
The supreme court, which has yet to deliver detailed reasoning behind its decision, was right to require higher standards when it noted that the IEBC “failed, neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the Constitution”. The context of the past two, deeply flawed polls in Kenya is important. On both occasions, Mr. Odinga had good reason to suspect foul play. It was doubly important that this time the process was seen to be free and fair.
Yet the torture and murder, 10 days before the vote, of the man charged with running the electronic transmission of results, widespread discrepancies between electronic and paper tallies on the day, and patterns in the count redolent of an intervention, had all planted doubts.
The annulment will usher in a tense period of renewed campaigning, at a time the nation is deeply polarised. It is incumbent on both candidates to be magnanimous and preserve the peace. Mr. Kenyatta may indeed have won. But until there is a watertight system, less open to abuse, there will be a reason to doubt. The supreme court has enforced a step in that direction that hopefully will embolden their peers elsewhere.
As bold judicial moves go in our region, the Supreme Court of Kenya could not have pulled off a better one on Friday. Kenya is in uncharted waters that it must chart one way or other. (According to Reuters, the Nairobi stock exchange halted trading briefly midway through Friday’s session after blue chip shares plummeted following the Supreme Court’s decision.)
Nullifying the re-election of president Uhuru Kenyatta will be chewed on the world without end by not just lawyers, politicians, political junkies, but by the rest of us “commoners” as well. It is noteworthy that it was a 4-2 split decision. Chief Justice David Maraga could not get all his colleagues to agree, yet it is usually helpful in such momentous matters to deliver a unanimous decision.
No matter, another election will be held in 60 days. The implications are huge, because the process leading to, and including, election day must be impeccable. But what does that mean? “Elections is not an event but a process,” the chief justice said. “After considering the totality of the entire evidence, we are satisfied that the elections were not conducted in accordance with the dictates of the Constitution and the applicable principles.”
The court has set the bar for the electoral body — IEBC — way too high that it is probably bound to fail to scale it, let alone reach it. Which means another court petition by whoever loses in 60 days. And the pressure will be immense for the court to annul that election’s outcome. Kenya may end up in a cycle of petitions, leaving the country without a substantive and stable government for months.
The opposite may be true that the IEBC will meet the court’s stars-level standard and the loser will concede. For that to happen, I think, a first step would be the firing or the resignation of the current electoral commissioners. I can’t see President Kenyatta or challenger Raila Odinga accepting a losing result from the present commission.
Kenya is also staring at a probable constitutional crisis should elections fail to be held under the 60 days period given by the Supreme Court. Jubilee has insisted that current IEBC is good enough to hold the election, NASA is relying on the judgment that IEBC fraudulently conducted the election therefore unfit and untrustworthy to conduct a fresh poll. This is straight logic, being a suspect of fraud, it would be an ostrich reasoning to propose or allow the same accused commission to conduct the fresh poll.
Will it be possible to constitute a new commission, put up fresh electoral setup under 60 days? Logically it is possible but Kenyan politicians with ego, big man syndrome, and lives for dumb hollery will frustrate the effort that will plunge the country into a crisis. We’re looking at a caretaker government at close of 60 days. This is the nusu mkate junction you keep hearing about.
For the two key protagonists, a convincing win that can stand the scrutiny of the court will be such a relief for President Kenyatta, a ringing endorsement of his August 8 win. A similar result for Mr. Odinga would show how wise a man he was to go to court last month, however reluctantly. A defeat for Mr. Kenyatta would mean the son of a former president could ride his privilege only so far — he had the prize but could not hold on to it. For Mr. Odinga, a defeat would mean that hard-nosed ambition can only take you so far.
Regardless, as the Kenyans say, Kenya must win. Kenya needs an electoral body and process beyond reproach.
WHAT HAPPENS WITH JUSTICE IBRAHIM’S TUESDAY ABSENCE
By JV Owiti
Supreme Court’s Justice Mohamed IBRAHIM did not attend the SCOK proceedings on the 2017 Presidential Elections petition on Tuesday the 29th of August 2017 as he had reportedly fallen sick.
The SCOK, however, proceeded without the learned judge due to what the Chief Justice David Maraga referred to as “pressure of time.”
LEGAL IMPLICATION
Section 8 of the Supreme Court Act, No. 7 of 2011 provides for the manner of the manner of arriving at decisions by the SCOK and at subsection (1) provides thus:
“8 (1) The judgment of the majority of the judges of the Supreme Court shall be the judgment of the Court.”
There may, however, arise a case where for the absence of one or more judges (for whatever reason), a tie arises in the verdict of the SCOK.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE CASE OF A TIE AT THE SCOK
If the SCOK reaches a termination upon the judgment of the six (6) learned judges (in the absence of a vote by the learned IBRAHIM) and there arises a TIE in the verdict of the SCOK in the petition, then the petition by the Hon. Raila ODINGA against the declaration of HE President Uhuru KENYATTA as president, then the status quo will remain meaning the petition fails and the petition STANDS DISMISSED.
If the decision of the six-judge court is split equally; that is, a 3 – 3 tie, then the petition will be lost and the SCOK will have been unable to make a decision and shall have thus retained the status quo. The election of President SHALL HAVE BEEN UPHELD!
That’s my understanding of the reading section 25 of the Supreme Court Act, subsection (2) of which provides thus:
“25 (2) If the judges are equally divided in opinion, the decision appealed from or under review shall be considered as having been affirmed.”
(Left – Right) Hon Lady Justice Njoki S. Ndungu, Hon. Justice (Prof.) Jackton Boma Ojwang, Hon. Lady Justice Philomena Mbete Mwilu (Deputy Chief Justice), Hon. Justice David K. Maraga (Chief Justice), Hon. Justice Mohammed K. Ibrahim, Hon. Justice Dr Smokin C. Wanjala and Hon Justice Isaac Lenaola. August 26, 2017.
OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO JUSTICE IBRAHIM
There, however, are in my view several options available to the learned IBRAHIM having heard a better part of the petition.
(a) Cast a Vote Nonetheless
Participate in the SCOK Decision on the Presidential Elections Petition from home. Having sat through a big part of the said petition, the learned judge reserves the right to cast his vote in the pending verdict. The good justice can rely on transcripts and written briefings of Tuesday’s proceedings in which he was not physically present for the oral arguments.
(b) Abstain from the Final Verdict
The learned judge can in my view decide to abstain from participating in the final vote if he is the conviction that he is unable to go through transcripts and or document in good time and be able to give a well-reasoned decision. That would mean only the remaining six (6) justices will participate in making the final verdict with a 3 – 3 tie being a possibility.
It is also possible – but I pray it doesn’t happen – that the learned Justice IBRAHIM is indisposed so that he cannot participate in the petition any further such that he is by reason of sickness unable to cast his vote nor make his determination thereon.
This has the same effect as if the learned judge abstained.
For now, we remain hopeful and pray that the learned judge gets well and fully recovers to be able to take back his seat at SCOK.
Full recovery is at the moment the most important, to me more important than even the SCOK awaited the determination of Friday 1st September 2017.
2017 Presidential petition filed in Supreme Court of Kenya by National Super Alliance(NASA) Candidate Rt Hon.Raila Amollo Odinga with his Deputy Kalonzo Musyoka hours to the deadline was unexpected and off guard decision strategically planned for. Filing petition in highest court in the land was not an ‘alternative’ as they used to preach, which means would they use to quench the thirst of the throne if not legal process? but this never made illegally President-Elect Uhuru Kenyatta not to be worried following ever daring opposition.
They knew Opposition brigade meant what they stood for ‘no Supreme Court this time around’ but was hopeful for International support as UN began to caution Mr.Odinga’s move that could have been ‘unconstitutional’.I believed no way could the same Statesman whom a week to Election launched his book entitled “Quest for Nationhood” be the first defiant.Uhuru Kenyatta and his team cocooned themselves waiting for the illegal move by the Opposition NASA and seem never to have thought otherwise, it was a shocker as Opposition filed their case accompanied by 25,000 volume affidavits.
Barely a month to General Elections, on 4th July ICT Manager James Muhati was silently reinstated on duty after being sent off on compulsory leave by IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati following his non-compliance during auditing of Servers and KIEMS Database Management System. Salim Lone, Raila’s Chief Adviser raised alarm and thereafter serious suspicions of abnormalities began to crop up in the Commission.The same Muhati was chased away by murdered Msando’s family who they held with the same ICT docket at City Mortuary,’he was never in good terms with Msando’ the family member out of frustration reacted. Msando was a man of integrity and Muhati was not hence his noncompliance with the Auditors.
On Monday 31st, a week to 8/8/2017 Election D-Day, the ICT Director who was Msando Chege was murdered in cold blood alongside a lady Maryanne,21 who just completed her diploma Course in Nutrition and Public Health in Kenya Medical Training College Karen Campus and dumped in a forest in Kiambu.An autopsy showed Msando was strangled to death after being tortured, an exercise that was aimed for him to release vital information in regards Servers and KIEMS Kits to enable rigging.Prior to results announcement, the query was who could benefit from his murder and now the question is who benefited? The answer is in the public domain.
TRANSPARENCY
Concurrently to this murder case, Presidential Ballot Papers a procurement that was awarded to controversial Dubai based firm Al Ghuriar were airlifted with 6.5%(980,000) Extra ballot papers contrary to 1.5%(196,000) that was planned for, that’s 20,818,000.Up to date, the extra ballot papers have not been accounted for.These concerns were raised by Thirdway Alliance Presidential Candidate Ekuru Aukot, IEBC confirmed in a tweet that all his allegations were untrue and unwanted but a day later after intense pressure, they admitted truly there were excess extra ballot papers that will be accounted for.After collation of all Rejected votes piled up to over 400,000, i wonder what was the purpose of these millions of Presidential Extra ballot papers if they to reduce the number of rejected/spoilt votes.
In court during the just concluded petition hearings on Tuesday 29th, all the Respondents; all two IEBC Lawyers and Uhuru Kenyatta Lawyer Fred Ngatia couldn’t explain a simple exercise of how Stray ballot papers were accounted for.
In court during the just concluded petition hearings on Tuesday 29th, all the Respondents; all two IEBC Lawyers and Uhuru Kenyatta Lawyer Fred Ngatia couldn’t explain a simple exercise of how Stray ballot papers were accounted for. Again many were shocked that all along IEBC Servers were operating from Europe, France yet on public domain IEBC reported they had contracted Telkom Kenya to manage its servers from which tallying will take place before results are made available to the public.
VERIFIABILITY
“The process was free, fair and peaceful” -a narrative all International Observers admitted but could it be verifiable? The allegation of rigging could not be watered down through talking,it was a matter that concerned the KIEMS Kits and Database management System and Servers hence the only solution to confirm verifiability of this process was access to be granted by the authority/Court to scrutinise system and Original Forms 34C (For IEBC Chairman Chebukati at National Tallying Centre) that was an aggregate of Forms 34B(From Constituency Tallying Centre)and which was an aggregate to Form 34A(From Poling Stations). Access was granted and there was almost 70% non-compliance with a court order issued by Supreme Court Judge David Maraga. Only Court Registrar was authorized to file an Audit report to court for hearing and below were the results of the defied Orders:
1.Order B-Firewalls without disclosure of the software version.
Response- IEBC was not willing to provide configuration of both Internal and External as it could tamper with their security.Configurations of Internal firewalls doesn’t affect the vulnerability of the System hence requested information on the configuration of the Internal firewall was not provided as ordered.
2.ORDER H-Certified copies of Certificates of Penetration Tests Conducted on the IEBC Election Technology System used prior to and after General and Presidential elections.
Response-Documents submitted were not Certified as they don’t conform to Election(Technology) Regulation 10,2017
3.ORDER I-Specific GPRS location of KIEMS Kits used during the Presidential elections period between and including 5th August and 11th August 2017.
Response-IEBC provided the GPS Location of the polling station and not KIEMS kits.
4.ORDER M-Log in trail of users and equipment into IEBC servers
Response-IEBC was to provide Read on Access meaning they should demonstrate that logins come from IEBC servers and copy or alternatively access the information in presence of the Petitioner and provide the copies as and when requested.Only live access was provided between 27th August at 3:50 pm without the ability to access the logs or even view them hence Access was not Granted.
5.ORDER N-Logins trails of users and equipment into KIEMS Database System
Response-Request was not granted
6.ORDER O-Login trails of users and equipment into KIEMS Database Management System.Presidential Petition No.1 of 2017 -41-(o) Administrative Login access into IEBC online Public Portal between 5th August up-to-date.
Response- IEBC only provided failed to provide Read only access hence Request not Granted.
7.ORDER P-Softcopy provision of information listed in (m,n,o).
Response-Was not provided.
Above were the most vital and areas of authenticity for results announced by Commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati.It was evident during the court hearings, both the Respondents IEBC and Uhuru Kenyatta Lawyers argued on basis technical allegations by the Petitioner to be ignored because that’s where verifiability could conduct.The decision by IEBC Senior Counsel Paul Muite admitted to the Court his client was ready to offer room for scrutiny of its system and forms seemed to be a personal decision as Uhuru’s lawyers Fred Ngatia and Ahmednassir Abdullahi opposed his submission on spot yet they were for the same goal.What was being hidden in the system that could intimidate their client Uhuru Kenyatta? Fraud.
IEBC Couldn’t explain to the court what exactly were streaming in in the Public portal as they at some point refer to them as ‘Statistics’,’Provisional results’.Court of Appeal ruling had it, results were only supported to submitted and tallied electronically and only voting was to be manual.IEBC were tongues tied as they submitted tallying and transmission was manual by use of forms 34A,34B contrary to the law.
IEBC officials seem to have vowed rather be locked up in jail than allow this anonymous fraud to be exposed.All acts above are justifiable for locking up these two officials and Presidential elections getting overturned for a Run-off.That’s the only way sovereignty of the voters will be acknowledged.
I feel like we are taking David Ndii’s call for secession too literally and completely missing the point.
I believe this was an article meant to spark uncomfortable conversations and inspire thoughts on the state of our nation but we would need to think about it beyond individuals and emotions, first. We need to start addressing David Ndii’s reasons for calling for secession and stop the sideshows and victim mentality. If you’re feeling offended then you’re part of the problem
Kenya is not a nation. Kenyatta senior and his thieving cronies lost their chance to unite Kenya at independence and we are paying for it ever since. We have had 2 tribes leading Kenyans since independence and we have great economic instability that is tearing this country apart somewhere at the border of Central Kenya and Rift Valley.
This might boil down to the fact that we do not acknowledge Kikuyu and Kalenjin privilege. It’s pretty hard to see privilege when you’re in it and the fight for equality in situations like these feels like oppression. How does this Kikuyu privilege work, though, if it does indeed exist?
A lot of this is heavily paraphrased from a conversation I had with Mistah Kamenchu and Rarieya Asin. We are all beneficiaries of privilege and victims of oppression. Our minds work really well in remembering the latter.
Suppose Mariga, lover of potatoes, chicken, and chocolate, runs for president. Assume that I run this country like a true African politician. I will have my binders full of Kikuyus in Cabinet, Parastatal Boards, Civil Service posts, the armed forces and any other place that I can stuff them. This number doesn’t look so large, does it? A couple of thousand people only so that could not possibly represent a countrywide problem, or could it?
These my tribesmen, as few as they are, hold influential positions which give their people great advantages in employment, procurement and thus increases the business opportunities for Kikuyus. With the Kikuyu tradition of keeping things “within the house”, they offer more business to other Kikuyus, not only in the Central region but all over Kenya. Kikuyus are big on supporting each other. The figures we are talking about here run into the hundreds of billions. I hope we can now start to realize how hundreds of billions between two tribes eventually distorts the national development agenda if it ever really existed.
These government employees, tenderpreneurs, and graft-money investors will have capital which cannot be matched by other tribes. So, soon you will find Kikuyus owning the fishing fleets in Lake Victoria, coffee plantations in Kiambu and Kisii, Kikuyus owning large hotels at the Coast, restaurants in North Eastern region, large tracts of expensive land in Nairobi in both affluent areas but even more interestingly in slums and many more examples, I am sure you can think of. The money will ensure that sick Kikuyus have their medical bills met, they can afford better food for their houses and will basically flow through the “Kikuyu Economy” Kikuyus will thus be wealthy, simply by association.
Due to the current tribal nature of our voting patterns, we will vote in consecutive Kikuyu or Kalenjin presidents and the effect on the economy will clearly be visible. We will attribute this success in all business fields to our sheer hard work and ethic. The biggest names in the business will be Kikuyu. Kikuyus will be the largest shareholders in Africa’s largest growing bank, Kikuyus will own most of Kenya’s mainstream supermarkets, Kikuyus will be at the echelons of civil society, Kikuyus will be a force to reckon with, owning businesses all over Africa and we will praise them for their resolve and ability to make do with nothing.
You will see Kikuyus all over TV and they will be the successful lawyers, engineers, pilots, business people, media owners etc and it will be attributed to their characteristics as a community, solely. Their region and people will have such disproportionate amounts of money and capital that their success stories will be significantly higher than the national average. When questioned about this, we will say that there are also poor people in Kikuyu areas, which is true but poverty level are relative and the fact that there are poor Kikuyus does negate the fact that more Kikuyus have access to power, money, and privilege than any other tribe in Kenya.
This also extends to corruption. Since my people and I are the majority in government, we are also the beneficiaries of the wanton looting and runaway graft and impunity that plague this nation-state of ours. My regime has endless corruption scandals, keeping with Kenyan standards of over one-third of our national budget. No one will ever get arrested and the money is eventually plowed back into the economy and usually back into our regions and so sleepy town suddenly have malls, hotels, resorts and life appears, in a span of a few years.
Because of proximity our power and government money, the Kikuyu-filled civil service takes home most of the corruption money, allowing them access to this ‘capital source’ that is unavailable to others. Keep Mariga in power for a decade and that changes the look of the Kikuyu middle class. So even though we can’t see it, we have greater access to government money both legally and through alternative monetary outflows.
Being in control of national government policy means that I would push for increased monetary allocation to Kikuyu and Kalenjin areas. Roads and railways are built with the Kikuyu farmer and businessman in mind. Dry ports are created in inexplicable areas with railways leading all the way to my farm and so Kikuyus will have infrastructural advantages over other regions but what other see as a privilege, they see as a norm and thus can’t understand the fuss round it.
Control over government organs means that I also have control through my Cabinet Secretaries on where to direct foreign investment when it comes to Kenya. I control the narrative on where the next Silicone Valley will be to the land which I and my five henchmen acquired and false narratives are peddled until they become truth. Activities associated with the Kikuyu become national priorities. Sugarcane in Nyanza will wither and die away, away from the view, while we will increase government subsidies, research, investment in areas that I feel will be more relevant for me politically
Eventually, the national narrative itself will be strongly infused with Kikuyu culture. There are lots of Kambas writing national history and the stories of the fight for independence will emphasize on the role of the Kikuyu-led Mau Mau, in the fight for independence and slightly touch on the other communities. We will have areas, regions, roads, schools, universities, and buildings named after Mariga Wang’ombe and my entire family and friends even in areas where Kikuyus do not traditionally reside. Nairobi will be full of references to Kikuyu culture, despite being a cosmopolitan city- read The Southern Kikuyu for a bit more information on that. So Kikuyus will benefit from cultural dominance, which has immeasurable economic and social influence in our view of development, regions, and equity.
Being Kikuyu will be something to be proud of because it will represent power and dominance. Uthamaki will be a word everyone will understand and it will come to represent how everyone else views us. Traditional Kikuyu rivals will be subject to ethnic ridicule and state-sponsored marginalization and my government will brutalise them for decades and when they finally do respond to the oppression, I will paint the narrative of them as violent and hooligans and this will desensitize everyone to the inhumanity that I, and subsequent leaders, will put them and subsequent generations, through. Anyone who enjoys a certain amount of privilege just by dint of the ethnic group they were born to -Kikuyu in this case (including the entire GEMA community) comes at a cost to other people.
When a tribal leader leads, his tribe in very real and absolute terms benefits. Marginalised tribes, will seem almost sycophantic in the support of their leader and they will vote him in because of the perceived and real possibility of economic benefit to them and their region, and because of the reality of economic marginalization by successive governments.
So the entire Kikuyu/GEMA community may not have grabbed land, may not have murdered opposition leaders and any other atrocity committed by me but since they were beneficiaries (and still are) of successive regimes that took part in such excesses then that makes them oppressors as a result of the privileges they enjoy.
Kenya is not working for everybody. If it’s working for you then it’s off the backs of other and it is your role to speak out against it. Privilege is hard to see when you’re in it and especially more difficult to hear when you realize that you are a part of it.
This is an oversimplified text in some aspects because there are many social and political aspects that would be in play affecting the success of people from my tribe but privilege is certainly a very big part of it that I cannot run away from. We referred to North Eastern Kenya as the Northern Frontier and based on Sessional Paper number 10 of 1965 and decided to give priority to areas which we deemed were economically beneficial to Kenya. We still treat North Eastern Kenya as less beneficial as other areas and have thus allocated significantly less funding and attention to these areas even in spite of devolution and its aims.
I feel that we need to look at the disproportionate development in this country as a ticking time bomb and be less worried about being offended by an article. Trying to call for patriotism as a way of minimalizing people’s experiences and trying to drum up support for imaginary lines which were created as a way of demarcating ownership of stolen land is lazy and offensive. There is nothing patriotic about silent suffering. Let’s fix Kenya.
NOTE: Opinions are writer’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Kenya Insights.
If you want to kill a dog first give it a bad name and be consistent. Falsely and persistently propagate in the neighborhood that the dog is a vagabond that poops everywhere, a dangerous rabies infected dog that bites anyone on sight, an ugly dog with no place to lay the soul of its feet’s upon. With that bad name in the neighborhood, every Tom, Dick and Hurry will take that accusation as a gospel truth and will immediately start to search and look for that dog in the neighborhood, believing the dog is a threat to public health, safety and security, and there after they will kill the innocent and humble dog, and bury it without a grave symbol. A lie told more frequently often become truth, and it occurs without conscious awareness.
Like the dog Mass action in Kenya, a technique of social political action for applying power in a conflict without the use of violence has been demonized and more often been given a bad name. There is an increasingly common narrative in Kenya, a fallacy that broadly interpret mass action as violent insurgency, a sporadic violence, crime against humanity, a widespread or systematic attack directed against one another or certain group of people, deportation or forceful transfer of population, a machete wielding event, angry lawless opposition engaging in jungle justice, killing, maiming, chopping each other, eliminating and displacing one another, looting and destroying properties. These common perceptions and myths about mass action have been imposed and programmed into Kenyans mind, and Kenyans have conceptualized this lie as gospel truth, a gospel which does not accurately reflect the reality of what mass action is.
The origin of this fallacy and narrative has all along been propagated by agents provocateurs used by the adversaries. Those who have a phobia of the word “MASS ACTION, DIRECT ACTION, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE OR CIVIL RESISTANCE”, those who do not believe in, “people’s power”. Those who are not ready to hand over political power, even after a result of free, fair and transparent electoral process, and their sidekicks the law enforcement agencies. Those who owns and controls the tools and means of production and propaganda like print and electronic mass media and state sponsored bloggers who fear the word “MASS ACTION”. {READ Police officers will arrest anyone who refuses to accept the results of the August elections, calls for mass action, http://mobile.nation.co.ke/news/Refusal-to-accept-poll-results-an-offence-/1950946-3857458-xeq4ie/index.html }
manono
The security agencies did not outcome out very clearly why they are burning nonviolent mass action.Such kind of reckless pronouncement is intended to make Kenyans choose violence before even attempting nonviolence. Why should state fear unarmed population? Does the government know the intense and extreme of that mass action that other Kenyans do not know? Or does it want to crush nonviolent campaigns in their infancy? This is a clear indication that the current government and economic elites who want to maintain status quo fears people’s power; they fear collective expression of opposition, dissenting, reactive or responsive views, values or interest.
The government fear mass action one of the various tactics and strategies of non violent direct action, or civil disobedience which will likely attract higher level of participation in the form of mass rallies and street demonstrations or other forms of social, political and economic non corporation, which comes in various tactics and strategies like stay a ways, sit ins, occupations, economic boycotts and so forth in which the number of participants is difficult to estimate. In 2007 post-election ended in violent due to states failure to effectively facilitate peaceful protest, prevent violence and engage in conflict resolution with those who were likely or intending to engage in violence.
According to Article 19 Eastern Africa Periodic bulletin that has been providing snapshots of the status of the protest in Kenya between 1st January 2016, and 30th November 2016, the organization documented a total of 175 protests of which 51 were violent. According to the report, violent protest in Kenya is normally triggered or sparked by police who violates critical parts of the international and local laws, especially regarding the use of force against protesters who are largely unarmed. It is a known fact that in Kenya, it is only government that enjoys a monopoly of violence. It owns machinery and tools of violence.
This pronouncement by security agencies to bar mass action after August election is a clear indication that civic and democratic space is progressively shrinking in Kenya, which is a major governance issue. Nonviolent mass action is a civic space which should be protected and expanded by social movements, political parties, labor movements and other independent voices and actors at all level in the Kenyan society. The right to mass protest non violently in whatever form is universally recognized human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the right to participate in cultural life, the right to life, privacy, liberty and security of a person and the right to non discrimination.
The Kenyan state has an obligation to respect the right to protest. Historically protests have inspired positive social change and the advancement of human rights globally. Protests enable individuals and groups to express dissent and grievances, share views and opinions, expose flaws in governance, and the public demand that the authority, corporations and other duty bearers rectify problems and are accountable for their actions.
Internationally human rights instruments do not explicitly define any “right to protest”. However, there is a consensus that for the protest to happen there is an intersection of other rights at play, in particular, the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of assembly, the right to freedom of association and the right to participate in the conduct of political affairs. This might also involve the right to strike in the context of labor relations and the right to culture.
Additionally, engaging in protest involves the respect and protection of other rights, such as the right to life, privacy, liberty and security of a person or freedom from discrimination. That is why the Kenyan state should not ban mass action but should emphasize on the non violent mass action. The right to join fellow citizens in protest or peaceful assembly is critical to a functioning democracy like Kenya, and it is at the core of Article 18 and 22 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 10 and 11 of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and Article 36 and 37 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010.
Unfortunately, Kenyan law enforcement has pronounced to violate these rights by banning mass action in August. The ban intends to thwart free public expression on election out comes. This means Kenyans will not be allowed to express their feelings. Banning non violent mass action is suspending Kenya’s constitution or amending the constitution through the back door, a constitutional coup. Non violent mass action is one of the various tactics and strategies of picketing that is enshrined in Kenya’s constitution. It is a tactic that is outside the bounds of the conventional political process and institutional methods of political actions.
It seems study of non violent action is something of a pariah within security agencies in Kenya and therefore we civilian population should not be deterred by the pronouncement. The pronouncement is threats and intimidations. Kenyans cannot all the time be forced to accept and move on every time when there is an electoral irregularity. Kenyans have a right to show their anger and frustrations in electoral processes through protest. We have a right in expressing our outrage and anger non violently as enshrined in the Constitution. We should use the constitution for our growth and power. Let us keep our focus and fought through violent repression to victory.
“In a Democracy, there will be more complaints but less crisis, In a Dictatorship, more silence but much more suffering.” – Amit Kalantri
Written by: JULIUS OKOTH
Social Justice Crusader and Practitioner
Opinions are writer’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the Kenya Insights.
While at the University of Nairobi studying journalism, one of the journalistic fundamentals that I learned is if your reporting doesn’t rattle the ruling class then you’re doing everything wrong, that’s PR. A journalist worth his salt must be an absolute pain to the power merchants. True journalism is about telling stories that would rather remain untold and saying the most uncomfortable truths. Media has the privilege of being the public’s eye by counter checking the government. While in other countries the media tasks the authorities, in Kenya, the authorities tasks the media.
Kenyan media is so heavily compromised a cough from the elite is censored. Election coverage by the local media has been so pathetic and deep like a flat plate. The media became the Jubilee and IEBC mouthpieces, there was no independent reporting, no independent tallying a standard practice worldwide. The media sent journalists across the country only to mine data from the IEBC portal. It was a bluff and wasting of resources to send journalists out in the first place. Economic wisdom would inform them to sit easy, stream the IEBC results straight from the portal just like the rest of the public instead of sending journalists out only to report on hot air.
Our media has been operating on a see no evil say no evil. Many important stories go untold, the authorities work with a lot of impunity but most ease without worries of media expose. Days to the election, Jubilee campaign team treated journalists to a special cocktail dinner where those who attended were gifted with hampers. A clean compromise and bait that the deluded scribes swallowed without chewing not a blink.
Media didn’t report own results so this gave IEBC numbers the monopoly and dominated perceptions. Shamelessly, the local media being puppets of the government, desperately attempted to cover up the electoral violence by giving the skirmishes a blackout. It took social media and the international media to step up and tell the real horror stories of police terrorism that have snatched away lives and maimed many in Kisumu and Nairobi where NASA supporters were protesting against the IEBC declaration of Uhuru as the winner of the presidential election.
Kenyan media tool the oppressor’s side and left the public in the cold. They’ve failed in their basic mandates. Media sold their soul, aired illegal adverts for Jubilee and couldn’t hide their alignment given unbalanced coverage to the two main contenders. While the country was mourning, police shooting and reigning brutality from Nyalenda in Kisumu to Mathare in Nairobi, the media was following up a man pictured in the voting line eating githeri, the media was looking for the silliest news item to divert attention from the state terrorism and they gave most irrelevant stories of our times the main lead.
The poor man was hunted down and turned into an overnight celebrity, Githeri man as he’s become to be known, played a key role in exposing the media mediocrity and was used unknowingly to divert Kenyans attention from the police killings. I watched in shock as to how the hell on earth media would turn cameras on some githeri yet the country was bleeding.
One thing media doesn’t know is when you breed a beast, it will one day turn and devour the owner. Authoritarian regimes will always clamp down on media freedom and this has already been seen. Immediately Jubilee got into power in 2013, media fraternity were entertained to the now famous statehouse breakfast. It changed everything, the media lost its teeth and started massaging the State more often. Along the way, Jubilee passed what they call draconian rules that made it nearly criminal to be an investigative journalist. That was a testing, with the tyranny of numbers in both legislative houses; parliament and Senate, the media can do the best to lather their hair or risk a rough shaving.
Critical reporting that investigates or interrogates claims by officials, explains and offers context and perspective or connects the dots has been limited or muted.
As the days went on, there were reports that Kenya Police were using excessive force against protesters. But it’s unlikely that those who have relied on mainstream media for their news have a good sense of the extent of the violence and post-election killings by police and others.
In more recent days, the wrath of the establishment has been turned on civil society groups, the most prominent of which are the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and AFRICOG. I read in horror a mainstream newspaper story that reported on the purported deregistration of KHRC by the Kenya NGO Coordination Board. It did not mention the fact that the organisation had made several critical statements on the electoral process. Was it paying the price for its activism around the elections or was the timing just a coincidence? Those are legitimate questions that journalists MUST ask.
In another story on 16 August it was reported that an IEBC Commissioner, Dr Roselyne Akombe, had been taken off a Nairobi flight to New York on orders of State security although she was later allowed to board another plane. Why was she taken off the plane? Why is this an issue? A leading Kenyan newspaper said that “sources” had told its reporters that some “State operatives feared that Dr Akombe, who reportedly holds both Kenyan and US passports was fleeing from Kenya”. Why would she be fleeing? Has this got anything to do with the election results? We don’t know. The newspaper didn’t ask those questions.
Make no mistake; we are aware of the dangers of reckless reporting. How the media report on a claim of violence in a certain part of the country can easily incite more violence. How the media report on claims of electoral fraud can equally incite supporters of the ‘losing’ candidate.
But the solution is not to avoid these claims and the ugly facts. Good journalism would report accurately on what is going on. It would interrogate the claims and report the ugly facts in a manner that helps the reader or listener or viewer understand what is happening. It would provide the kind of context that would help hold back those who would otherwise quickly want to take to the streets to make trouble.
To steer clear of controversial claims by legitimate actors in the name of peace is a disservice to the people in the long run. Not only does it easily undermine the integrity and credibility of journalism, it also undercuts the strengthening of institutions of State such as the electoral authority.
We won’t be there when they come for you as you were nowhere to be seen when they came for us. Kenyans now have to depend on international media to tell their uncensored stories and bloggers who are soon getting clamped down on to tell the stories that the media ignores.The media is not asking critical questions like why is the IEBC results from stream portal still running despite having made final results, they’re not asking why the IT technicians are unable to disable the system. Media is not giving us an analysis of the petition instead talking about irrelevant issues like how much lawyers would be paid. Kenyan media is acting like a socialite bimbo in Miguna’s words. They’re prioritizing side shows to the real matters at hand. Lack of objective journalism has created a void in Kenya’s space and international media jumping in. Kenyan stories likely to be told better by foreigners while our journalists sip tea at statehouse and receiving Mpesa texts.
Media legitimacy is fast fading and history will judge current journalism breed harshly. We’ve seen critical journalists to the authorities sacked before especially NMG is notorious for this. Media is held hostage by power elites who won’t take a drop of criticism. We can look forward to more sacking for those who dare raise the bar. Media owners and editors need to rise above this barrel bottom mediocrity and protect journalism from dying, protect reporters from intimidation and unlawful prosecution. But we’re looking at a serious foreplay that we all know it’s end.
The media didn’t even have own election violence casualties data, the government said only six deaths, KHRC 24 and the media stood there confused without facts running with the government’s number. Independent research by media would easily tell exact numbers, but Kenyan media’s least concern is fact checking and reporting. The media reports what the government says as gospel truth. I have a suggestion, Media should have a space allocated in Statehouse since they’re ghost employees. An unchecked system is a beast, the beast that the Kenyan media is now breeding. If this was a movie, Kenyan Media is playing an active role in the making of a dictatorial regime. The mainstream media has squandered its freedom while letting Kenya down but unknowingly self cannibalizing.
Lancer Achieng and Joseph Abanja named their named their infant Pendo because they believed God had shown Achieng love and mercy after she went through a difficult delivery. Married in 2012, the couple has gone through reproductive difficulties that have seen Achieng suffer several miscarriages in the last five years. When Baby Samantha was finally delivered in February this year, she was the source of you to the young family.
For six months, the family lived happily embracing the gift of a healthy daughter until it was cut short on the night of 11th August. No sooner had IEBC made the announcement that President Uhuru has retained his seat beating Raila with 54% against 44% than his home turf Kisumu, erupted into protests and chaos. This was anticipated, NASA had flagged the election and asked the electoral commission to withhold from announcing the results citing serious rigging.
Police walking past a fire set by protesters.
The pleas fell on a dead ear and IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati made the announcement that sent Odinga’s supporters to the streets in protest. In Nyalenda slums, Kisumu where Baby Samantha lived, the youths took it to the streets singing in protests. The young family was tucked in their small house following the protests from a safe haven so they thought. The rioting youths were brutally resisted and attacked by the no nonsense anti riot police officers heavily deployed in the region specifically for the post results protests. Officers followed protesters to their homes when they embarked on door-to-door attacks, mercilessly beating and painfully injuring many in this uncouth operation.
At around 1 am, the agents of death knocked on Achieng’s door, when they hesitated, officers lobbed tear gas into the tiny house forcing Ochieng the husband to open. He was thoroughly beaten by the officers who reigned on him with clubs before turning to Achieng who was not spared the wrath. Holding tight to baby Samantha, one of the officers heartlessly smashed the head of the infant with a baton before all running away on realizing the blunder of hitting a baby whom by now was presumed to be dead by the mother who was screaming by then. With the slums locked down by the brutal officers, Achieng and Joseph finally managed to arrive at Aga Khan hospital at 4 am but by then the baby was barely making any movements.
Achieng helplessly watching over her baby Pendo while in a comma at Aga Khan hospital, Kisumu
Baby Pendo went into a comma and unfortunately died four days later leaving immeasurable pain in the hearts of the parents. In a familiar script, the police denied responsibility that they clobbered the infant. Post mortem conducted by government psychologist revealed that her scalp was fractured from the hitting and suffered heavy internal bleeding.
I said familiar script for the simple reason that police commit these atrocities and never own up. It didn’t come as a surprise that a no number of officers were deployed to Odinga stronghold predominantly resided by the Luo community. The force with which the protests were met with us nothing close to normal. From Kibera to Mathare to Kisumu, the police officers seem to have ulterior motives beyond maintaining peace and protecting property. Body bags were ferried to Kisumu a clear signal that police were out to kill as many. Raiding homes in the middle of the night indeed is not about containing riots but reigning terror. The use of live bullets on protesters is ill advised and a pointer of killing motives. Police are only supposed to use live bullets in protecting lives, not even property.
Anti-riot policemen arrive to disperse protesters in Mathare, in Nairobi, Kenya August 12, 2017.
Police are trained to disarm any civilian and arrest if they pose danger but our officers must be reading from a totally different doctrine. Most of those shot dead and injured were neither armed nor charged towards the police. The officers simply have a fetish for pulling the trigger. Waving a placard could easily earn you bullets to your chest for causing ‘disturbance’. But the Kenyan authority doesn’t take criticism even an article like this would earn me accusations of being an inciter and threat to national security. In Kenya, they say the truth is also hate speech.
Maina Kiai, a former U.N. rapporteur, and renowned human rights activists is one of the boldest and most fearless figures who’ve previously called out the police brutality especially towards the Luo community. “It is time to state this openly: The Kenya Police Force (it is not a service despite the name change) seems to target the Luo community for extraordinary brutality and violence. No other community is subject to as much force and use of live ammunition as the Luo. There are countless demonstrations across the country, but nowhere else do we witness as many casualties—from the overwhelming use of force.” Kiai wrote in an article earlier this year.
A mother covering the bodies of her two sons shot dead by police in Mathare.
Maina’s unfiltered sentiments came in the week when CORD leadership had called for countrywide protests for the restructuring of IEBC. The Police in custom style targeted Odinga’s supporters particularly the Luos with brutality. Shootings happened in Kisumu. Six-year-old Jeremiah Otieno Adongo was shot at his parents’ house, coincidentally, this happened in Nyalenda slum, same place Baby Samantha Pendo was attacked by the police.
Mother mourns death of son George killed by police bullet in Kibera
In the same times; a one-year-old boy was critically injured when tear gas was thrown into a house, while two other youths were hospitalized after being brutally beaten by the police. In Nairobi’s Mathare slums also dominated by Luos, the police aimed and shot at a 9-year-old girl playing in the balcony on the 5th floor according to witnesses. In the same estate, an 8-year-old boy was also shot dead by police. This is away from the 17 plus deaths reported by the suspended Kenya Human Rights Commission. The government in rebuttal has said only six people have died and not a single case of bullet death reported. That’s how ‘truthful’ the police in Kenya is. Another case of an 18-year-old form four school boy who was removed hidden under the bed and beaten by the police in Mathare. He later died from the injuries.
The 9 year old girl shot at by police while playing in the balcony. Mathare.
“When it comes to Luoland, the police force essentially converts itself into a militia serving a political purpose. And this police-cum-militia for Luoland is not new.” Maina Kiai. Brutality in Luos has been normalized and no action is ever taken against such rogue officers, in fact, most end up getting promotions for ‘good job’ for how long will this clear state terror on a community stereotyped for being ‘tough heads’ continue? Since Kenyans don’t like uncomfortable truths as this article, lemme sign off with a question, If Uhuru has lost the election and residents in Kiambu took to the streets in protests, would they have been met with the same police brutality and shootings in the magnitude of Kisumu, Kibera, and Mathare? I thought so too.
Life is based mainly on the pillar of security. The weak ones are taken advantage of. The secured ones make sure they brainwash the unsecured ones and make them voting bots. While the messed up Moi 8.4.4 system that offered and still is offering nothing other than a pack of bullshit to poor Kenyans who can’t afford education. Kenya still is fighting ignorance.
Kenyans are tired of being used by the secured ones and to use our poor people’s taxes to secure their respective securities invested in properties. Check, for instance, a phone less Late Biwot who has larger shares in H-Young construction company, a company that has taken almost 2 years to wind up, 1s Avenue in Eastleigh. A distance of estimated 3/4 Kilometer, wastage of time and public resources.
A dry inland port that we’re being promised by Jubilee government. A reliable source has indicated that the Kenyatta family is having a hand in the share of the piece of land from that area. Well, this is a clear copy of the secure securing their respective securities.
A word of advice to the poor hardworking minorities, your security is voters card and that vote. In a
scientific assumption, we both have brains, but it’s a few that uses this vital organ. One vote to a stupid person and the economy will have to carry the burden for the coming 5 years.
In a country, Kenya, that is still suffering from poor leadership and governance. And in this era, we’re still fighting ignorance. While other states are busy building their individual economy and investing in future immortal defense systems. We have nothing much left but a vote to the right person. Someone who means good for this country. This is why we need Raila Odinga in the state house.
Well, Raila Odinga has been through thick and thin. Both on his personal life and on the line of public duty. He Has survived attempts against his life. And is still holding the wish of the people. A vote for Raila is a vote for better future.
Kenya’s current economy is scathed by the rule of Jubilee mediocre. They’ve dismantled everything from mainstream media to hiring cheap wankers on social media. The society is infested by tribalism that is being driven by Jubilee bots. The economy is at its worst end. The worst part is the foreign debts that we’ve been driven to. A child born today in The land of Kenya, immediately after crying, s/he has a debt of over 80thousand in Ksh. This is accompanied by harsh economic life ahead of it. With almost every hope to a better life stagnant.
Time to secure our securities. If you don’t have any, vote for a better future. Vote for Raila Amolo Odinga. This is a better security, for now, and for the future. Let’s converge and have ourselves the better leader to reclaim this torn apart country.
Opinions expressed are writers own and doesn’t necessarily represent that of Kenya Insights.
As a billionaire, Raila is set for a retirement to his vast empire. While he was the NASA candidate, this election as drawn was beyond his indivual character. Kenyans wanted a change, things weren’t going the way they ought to be under Jubilee who served not meals of mystery to The livelihood of many Kenyans. But the high hopes seem dead with declaration of Uhuru as president which means more years of Jubilee tasteless rule. A petition challenging Uhuru’s win has been filed but if we’re to speculate ruling from the history then we might as well hope for the best but brace for The worst.
With Raila out of The picture what’s next for Kenya? What position are we left in. With majority stakes in bith legislative houses, Jubilee will swallow The opposition influence. Raila has been one of The best opposition leaders in our times, a blessing in disguise. If left unchecked, Jubilee can be a menace. If Raila who single handedly holds regimes into account exits the political picture then his shoes will be left unfilled and Kenyans will be literally left in The cold.
The repercussions of Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga ‘Loss’ in recently concluded sham Elections ever in Kenya history and the price to pay is more than we can afford.
Voter Apathy has hit the edge. Voter turnout in the year’s election was more with 20% and voter register piled up with more 36% voters which amounted to 19.6million an increase with over 700,000. This was historic purposefully because they believed it was this time or never will their dream of Change of Government which was scandalous with Corruption, Extra Judicial Killings and too many injustices to mention. The D-Day ambulances transported ill eligible voters from hospital wards, they never wanted to miss and mess this country for every vote counts. With a 78% voter turn out, the hopes and stakes in this election were high. What it has become has killed spirits and trust in the electoral system in Kenya.
From counting of results to Transmission to National Tallying Centre became Sodom and Gomorrah and 11th August on a Friday close to midnight unexpectedly Uhuru Kenyatta was announced winner despite evident malpractices that bumped the outcome.It was an election for Uhuru Kenyatta to loose with a margin, Opposition strongholds recorded highest voter turnouts, historically Some of President Uhuru strongholds an example Embu County in Central Kenya gave Opposition Candidate Raila 22% unlike before in 2013 where he only garnered 5%. Elections in Kenya have had a predetermined results pattern. If this is the case, many Kenyans are losing hopes in the electoral system. It really doesn’t make sense to wait for five years to line up to cast a vote on a leader already selected by dark forces. Why waste time to vote while machine appoints the president? A general feeling.
A mother covering the bodies of her two sons shot dead by police in Mathare.
The election outcome was and has always been predetermined between Electoral Body IEBC and the Ruling government provided Raila is on the ballot in support of World Super powers America just to state a few who are phobic of his possible government.For the first time, America firm won Construction tender of Nairobi-Mombasa superhighway under Jubilee government and fear of their tender getting revoked when Odinga takes the throne was immense and might have led to influencing of Uhuru Kenyatta win. It’s not just the US, Western countries and observers, rushed to give the election a view bill of health before the proceeds were concluded. Carter Centre, EU Mission are amongst the observant groups reconsidering earlier statement will raising concerns over the transmission process.
Following the outcomes some groups and organizations are Collecting signatures to boycott all Presidential Elections from next Election, it’s a waste of time and public resources when Voices of Dictators are heard more by Electoral body IEBC than voices of the electorates.Some are petitioning change of constitution we become a Kingdom led by King, hereditary leadership. Boycotting of next General election will be a reality, a big blow to claimed democracy in this Nation.The credibility of Electoral body IEBC has been totally buried alive and I don’t think ever again will Kenyans have faith in any Electoral body even if the current is disbanded.
Media Freedom has been sabotaged. From Tallying exercise and thereafter, mainstream media has been the Government mouthpiece and so two-way traffic, scratch my back I scratch your back.Media is to report public opinion and speak for the public but this has not been the case. Government through Information Communication Technology (ICT) CS earlier on threatened media houses not to have Parallel Tallying Centres which possibly they would announce results not concurrently with the Electoral body which is public interest always to be ahead. Genuinely to say, mainstream media played the biggest role in the electoral fraud. Like in all authoritarian regimes, we’re most likely to see a severe attack on the freedom of the press. This will give the government monopoly of controlling narratives with a severely mutilated media. The media has been deformed from being the public’s watchdog to the power elites and government watchdog and puppets. Crawling credibility.
Back to Social media, freedom of expression has been limited as many including bloggers have been threatened, some arrested and charged in court for hitting Government with reality considered ‘inciting’ sentiments.During Presidential Debate which only Raila responded to, he pledged to protect Social media users and mainstream media being they are exercising Freedom of expression. Social media is most likely to be a victim of voices clampdown. We’ve already seen some insane gagging legislations from the previous Jubilee government, we’re most likely to see more stiff and clamping laws. Social media has bee n an effective public eye on the government, the two have never blended well and her will.
Anti riot police aims to fire a tear gas canister at protesters
Oppressive the Legislation by use of Tyranny of Numbers which has just begun as Aden Duale former Majority leader and possibly will retain his position has admitted impeaching Controversial Auditor General Ouko as his first assignment.Auditor General Ouko has been the man trying to unmask Eurobond saga one of the grand corruption that’s haunting Jubilee government, he has since been an obstacle.The government doesn’t need ‘enemic’ intelligent minds but just simple men and women who do only paper work and says no evil.Being that this time round Jubilee Legislators outnumbers opposition’s, Constitution manipulation will be vigorous to favor their interest.Remember these are the same people who opposed the amendment of the new constitution in 2010 hence manipulation of the constitution will be rampant provided they have the Tyranny of Numbers.
The Same script is currently influencing People of South Africa, the outcry of citizens does away with President Jacob Juma as a matter of Corruption and ruthless governance but he has slipped after winning Vote of No Confidence in Parliament because his party has the Tyranny of numbers.His legislators are protecting the party and not the people, they are listening to the voice of the party and not the voice of the People they represent. It is not a secret that Jubilee leadership greatly opposed the new constitution of 2010. With majority numbers, Kenya is most likely to go into a referendum to amend the document. Kenyatta, i wouldn’t be surprised if he seeks to extend his terms.
Ethnic Profiling and Tribal hatred have been a stressor for a period now.Power inheritance or circulation between two communities(Kikuyus and Kalenjins) has been of greater concern and threat to National Cohesion.Provided these two communities have the highest population in Kenya, Odinga would have been a buffer in tribal hatred. The bitter truth is the violence of 2017 is ethnic based, the Luos were singled out in the police terror. It didn’t shock from comments that some of the rival community members saw the brutality justifiable. Jubilee campaigned on a national unity agenda only to work in reverse in these targeted missions. Ethnic thinking and political correctness are really blinding and misfortune in Kenya. Intellectuals have become ethnic bigots and apologists. Last few days have exposed clearly the hatred, bigotry and supremacist tendencies Kenyans hide under smiling face for different communities.
NASA’s Mudavadi a d Sen Orengo assessing the damages after the police raid at the tallying centre.
Police Impunity has been on rising, protected by the same government to carry out injustices, Extra judicial killings on Outspoken and anti government personalities which include civil society have been facing the wrath.”The government only kill criminals” words from Police spokesperson.Recently Peaceful Post Election Protests led to the death of 25 people including the 9yrs old girl and 6months old infant which Police fabricates to have been Criminals and 107 Casualties in Opposition strongholds.Helter Skelter killings have become police norm, Moi era it was worst but again on rising on the current Uhuru regime, unlike Kibaki era. Police(Flying Squad) and other security personnel Kenya Defense Forces(KDF) are entities who operate on ORDER, not WILL and it’s government that gives Order.Not sooner will this end as already Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and AfriCOG two Independent Civil society have been de-registered by CEO of NGO Board Fazul Muhammad over tax evasion and illegal operation allegations amidst the crisis of ongoing Extrajudicial killings to Peaceful protestors as a result of the fraudulent election.
These two bodies are the most active and the only eligible to defend Common citizens from injustices and file petitions in court.We have Election crisis, they were on the process to file a petition in court to find justice in recently concluded elections which government would have been on the losing end and had to shut down these two not to move an inch.Let’s be ready for the same tune provided Uhuru Kenyatta is still the Commander-in-chief.
Corruption has been the worst nightmare of current Uhuru administration.We have been ranked 3rd worldwide as the most corrupt country. The government is a collection of different and multiple entities who governs different sectors of concern in Nation building meaning it’s not Uhuru the Government.His government will be back I believe with same faces of corrupt Cabinet Secretaries and arms of Government.Raila had a mission to ‘Fagia wote’ sweep all away to start a fresh.All these grand corruption; Chicken Gate saga, Eurobond, National Youth Service (NYS) only came to limelight after Odinga’s alarm and the majority if not all had faith he could have been the revolutionist. Corruption takes up to half of annual budgetary allocations. Money set aside for the advancements of the country, ends up in the hands of a few, denying country development. Corruption has been rampant in the Jubilee Government, so high it has been rated highest in history. President Uhuru excused himself in a feigned exoneration that his hands are tied to deal with corruption. It has become inconsequential and fashionable to steal public money. If the last was bad then you can only imagine of the next.
A clear warning from Jubilee Party Chair Murathe on what to expect of Uhuru’s second regime.
Unemployment menace has been on rising, more than 1.1million SMEs shut down in the last 4yrs in presence of Uhuru regime and so did companies, industries, and banks relocate from Kenyan market due to Economy crisis rendering thousands of Kenyans jobless. Cost of Living due to the rate of unemployment and Economy flop has been witnessed in some parts of the country people starving to death, when there was Unga/maize flour Nationwide shortage, an unaffordable packet of milk, the unaffordable price of sugar all occurred out of Will and Strategy for votes hunting.Single mothers for the first time were to be recognized and catered for by Odinga government, all is lost. If Jubilee is to carry on with the same policies then unemployment rates likely to heighten.
Dead Institutions especially the Clergy who are used to government looted money through conducting Harambee which Deputy President William Ruto is best at to silence them. The church a moral support body has been squarely engulfed in the murky business and voices bought. Noticeably, the church has been conspicuously missing miss crisis moments. Church went into bed with the oppressors and flock left on their own.
International community combined forces in a conspiracy to protect their individual country’s business interests in the premature endorsement of the election described as free and fair unanimously to the presidency of Uhuru. This sounds good but in line, line loses the sovereignty sense which by the way is illusory. Nothing is for free and they’ll definitely expect to oil of their backs by the fraudulent regime endorsed.
Now more than ever given the Jubilee’s tyranny of numbers and majority occupants in both Parliament and Senate, legislation making bodies. We’re just likely to see selfish and oppressive legislations pass through. For this, a very strong civil society is needed as a backup to check the system. Knowing what’s ahead, it doesn’t shock that Civil society is the first casualties of Jubilee terrorism. A weakened civil society and opposition leaves Jubilee with the monopoly of running the town. And don’t be shocked of Moi era is reincarnated. A direct attack on the civil society is an indirect attack on fundamental human rights.
In 2013, after the negative Supreme Court ruling that upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila said the infamous “don’t feel bad for me that I’ve lost the election, feel bad for yourself for whom you’ve elected” he prophesied mystery under Jubilee rule something we all can agree to or act numb and say otherwise.
Yesterday I called a friend with family in Kisumu and asked if they were fine. She said she’s worried that they havent heard from some of them. But she broke down when she spoke of a water trader who was shot dead. What pained her was not just the loss of his life, but the fact that even that loss didnt count enough for Kenya to question what it has done and still does for this election.
Her sorrow made me realize that while elections 2013 was about tyranny of numbers, elections 2017 is about tyranny of empirical evidence. The burden of evidence is not placed on IEBC & GoK to prove they’re following the law, but on citizens to prove IEBC and GoK are not. The press no longer investigate claims; they demand evidence for the claims.
That demand works against citizens because GoK is hoarding and clearing their evidence, as NASA has claimed is happening in Kisumu with body bags. Neoliberal global capital has another weapon: criminalizing freedom of speech and criminalizing libel. So police have promised to arrest us for claims about electoral violence, while preventing local media from reporting it. It also means that if you’re poor, the legal fees alone will scare you into silence. For instance, Bridge Academies is suing Sossion for a tweet he wrote questioning the education they provide to the poor. The law works for the rich, not for us, unlike what that anonymous ad on NTV likes to tell us.
We’ve reached a point where, if I say it rained as I queued to vote, Jubilee bots will demand my evidence from the meteorological department. My point may not be that it rained, but that I was a dedicated because I braved the cold to vote. However, I’ll be distracted into proving it rained. And if I insist that I was talking about how I felt physically and consciously, I’ll be called self absorbed because I’m making elections about me.
My friend Lewis Gordon has published extensively about de-ligitimizing the black person’s experience so much that it cannot stand as evidence. Slavery denied the black experience as legitimate evidence. So a slave could not be oppressed if the evidence came from the slave alone. The experience of slaves was not enough as evidence. Evidence had to come from institutions to which the slave had no acccess. In other words, a slave could not be a witness in his or her own oppression.
That is what the international media & Jubilee have done to us. The US govt and media have joined Jubilee in de-ligitimizing the voices and experiences of Kenyans as evidence of a flawed electoral process. They have demanded amounts of evidence which those without governmental resources cannot produce to the massive scale demanded. And by preventing local media from reporting, we have no access to information independent of our experience. It means that if police shoot me, I have to film it, make sure the date is posted on the video, and then ensure I have bundles to send the video to the press. And if I die, I would need to make sure my remains are not put in a body bag. The burden of proof is on me.
Yet the constitution, which Jubilee is about to mutilate, affirms the sovereignty of the people. If people claim injustice, burden is on Gok to take us seriously, investigate and protect us, not to perform its righteousness to an international gallery and threaten to jail us. Meanwhile, GoK and its American friends have made Kenyans people whose lives, opinion and experiences do not matter enough for us to doubt the commitment of Jubilee to the people of Kenya. We are not evidence enough.
Dr. Wandia M. Njoya is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Language and Performing Arts at Daystar University in Kenya . Views are her own and not necessarily Kenya Insights’
Note: Whitehouse has issued a statement congratulating President Elect Uhuru on his re-election also asking aggrieved parties to go to court.
John Kerry has been savaged by angry Kenyans on Twitter for endorsing the disputed Presidential Election. Kerry, a former US Secretary of State led the Carter Centre observers to the Kenyan Election. The Carter Centre has withheld its verdict based on tallying concerns.
Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci has savaged Secretary John Kerry over his comments on the disputed Kenyan Election. Kerry who was part of the Carter Centre team to observe the election has been widely criticized for calling the elections “free and fair”. Several deaths have been reported after violent protests followed the electoral body’s announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner.
Kerry gave the election a clean bill of health asking aggrieved parties to seek legal redress. However, his sentiments sharply contradicted with Carter’s formal statement that has red flagged the tallying process by IEBC. In a section it reads “Although election day voting and counting processes functioned smoothly, the electronic transmission of results from the polling stations to the 290 constituency centers, where official results are tallied, proved unreliable. The IEBC advised election officials to revert to the paper copies of the results forms, which provided a reliable mechanism to tabulate the results. Unofficial results were also transmitted to the national tally center, where they were posted on its website. Unfortunately, the early display of vote tallies at the national level was not accompanied by the scans of polling station results forms as planned, nor labeled unofficial, leading to some confusion regarding the status of official results.”
NASA has raised an alarm that the results were unsubstantiated causing confusion, despite their demands to have the stream numbers pulled down until official numbers from the constituencies backed up with form 34Bs are received as those are the official numbers that ought to have been shown in the first place. NASA has disputed the elections flagging the tallying process insisting IEBC servers were compromised in favor of Uhuru.
Anti riot police dispersing a group of protesters.
The Carter Center’s observation mission closely collaborated with other international observation missions, including the African Union, COMESA, the Commonwealth, the East African Community, the European Union, ICGLR, IGAD, and the National Democratic Institute, as well as from consultations with key Kenya election observation groups and other stakeholders. It therefore not unusual that they both had a unanimous voice giving the election a clean bill of health.
On Monday 14th August, Mr. Kerry made a comment on Kenya’s election on his Twitter page expressing his concern over the state of violence urging aggrieved to seek lawful routes of solving the dispute. However, his carefully chosen words provoked emotions and he was attacked viciously by Kenyans who were clearly angry and disappointed with his endorsement of the contested presidential vote. Some of the replies;
The position taken by the Americans in this election can only be likened to 2007 where a Kibaki win was their priority. Under the then Ambassador Reinbergger nothing was made unclear that the US was uncomfortable with an Odinga e in which was then inevitable all factors constant.
America commissioned an exit poll that showed Kibaki losing to Raila in the election by 6%. However, with instructions from the ambassador, the results were withheld from public release. Mr. Kenneth Flottman, East Africa director for the International Republican Institute, the pro-democracy group that administered an American government commissioned exit poll, said he had believed that the results would promptly be made public, as a check against election fraud by either side. But then his supervisors said the poll numbers would be kept secret.
A wailing mother covering the bodies of her two sons shot dead by police in Mathare.
When the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, was finally declared the winner amid cries of foul, Kenya exploded in violence that would leave more than 1,200 people dead before the two sides negotiated a power-sharing deal two months later. With rioters roaming the streets, Mr. Flottman sent an e-mail message to a colleague saying he was worried that, in rebuffing his pleas to release the poll, the institute had succumbed to political pressure from American officials.
“Supporting democracy and managing political outcomes are two different objectives for a nonpartisan, foreign-based organization or country,” he wrote, “and sometimes there is a conflict that requires a choice.”
Years later, the poll’s fate remains a source of bitter contention, even as Kenya moved to remake its electoral system. The failure to disclose it was raised at a Senate hearing in Washington and has been denounced by human rights advocates, who said it might have saved lives by nudging Mr. Kibaki to accept a negotiated settlement more quickly.
Exit polls, of course, are not always accurate, and it is impossible to know if events might have played out differently had the Institute publicized the results, as it has usually done elsewhere. But in Kenya’s highly contested election, this particular exit poll, conducted by an experienced American organization, might have been the best gauge of who really won. There’s no publicly available exit poll for 2017 election proven to have been commissioned by the US.
An examination by The New York Times found that the official explanation for withholding the poll — that it was technically flawed — had been disputed by at least four people involved in the institute’s Kenya operations. The examination, including interviews and a review of e-mail messages and internal memorandums, raises questions about the intentions and priorities of American observers as Kenyans desperately sought credible information about the vote.
None of those interviewed professed to know why the Institute withheld the results. But the decision was consistent with other American actions that seemed focused on preserving stability in Kenya, rather than determining the actual winner.
US Embassy denounces a fake document doing rounds showing why the US was reluctant on a Raila Presidency.
When Mr. Kibaki claimed victory on Dec. 30, 2007, the State Department quickly congratulated him and called on Kenyans to accept the outcome, even though international observers had reported instances of serious ballot-counting fraud. American officials backed away from their endorsement the next day and ultimately pushed the deal that made Mr. Odinga prime minister. There’s no evidence neither rumors that the US might have directly meddled in this year’s election not unless a history was replicated. Raila is expected to make an announcement on the next step he’s taking having vowed that this will be the last election to be stolen.
NASA cannot get what is right to be done especially when media is perpetuating the psychological script that is meant to cow the public.
It’s outrageous that journos and “pundits” and “political analysts” have decided to be part of this charade. What we are fighting is the casual broadcast and analysis of a grand heist.
IEBC generated fictitious numbers which cannot tally with Forms from polling stations and constituencies. Secondly, they flouted the law on the procedure of transmission of Presidential results (send in number and form 34A scans simultaneously. . and not hours and a day apart). Third, they flouted the law on announcement of Presidential results (Constituency declaration of results. NOT BOMAS)
NASA is asking a basic question. Starting with …that con number on the screen which any sensible heads should question. That 54% Uhuru lead on Raila. ..WHERE did it come from? What SUPPORTS it? What process ARRIVED at it?
IEBC has repeatedly admitted that the numbers which have been hanging there for 3 days are not based on anything.
Question is – Why are these unverified results still up? You’d be a fool to present NASA numbers in this fraudulent atmosphere.
STEP 1- TAKE THEM DOWN! STEP
2 – Put up VERIFIED numbers! Aren’t these available by the increasing number of Form 34Bs (Constituency Presidential Results) that confused Chebukati keeps announcing they have.
Take down that fictitious figure. Both at Bomas and on TV. Then let’s count what the verified documents are saying. The law says Results must be verifiable. Let’s start there.
Don’t ask NASA to bring their figures and argue with some “number” whose origin even IEBC itself admits is based on NOTHING.
Some legal tips on handling electronic evidence this election period. If you take a video or photo of any event, for it to be credible, it must be extracted from your device by a qualified police evidence expert. Hence, if you share the photo on social media, it may not count as evidence. Hence, take your device to the police, ODPP or IEBC for them to advise on how to extract the evidence so that it counts in court.
Serious and severe election offenses that may arise on the voting day:
1. Do not take any selfies of your Ballot Papers or the inside of the Polling Station. It’s an offence. We may have done it during party nominations but it was wrong. It’s illegal.
2. Do not be a good Scout and help anyone in filling or marking their Ballots at a polling station. It’s illegal unless you are the designated person to assist and you follow the laid down procedure.
3. Do not take any Souvenir Ballot papers Home as proof that you voted on 8.8. 2017, just because you don’t feel like voting for any Governor or Women’s Rep. position, please don’t remove those unmarked ballots, despite the great temptation to.
4. Do not touch or handle any IEBC materials or equipment apart from those handed to you e. g. ballot papers or where you are directed to use e. g. the voting booth. It’s an offense.
5. At all costs avoid the temptation to handle, lift, shake or check if the Ballot Box is full. It’s illegal. Should the Presiding Officer form the opinion that you are disrupting the voting process, you would be in trouble.
6. IEBC Materials belong to IEBC. For purposes of the voting day pretend they are not purchased using Tax payers money.
Let’s read and familiarize ourselves with the Election Offences Act 2016 and share information on any old offenses and any old habits that have been criminalized in the new Act. e. g. it would appear that impersonating a person living with a disability or a sick person to gain priority voting without queuing is an offense.
Some few important Norms and standards for IEBC that this election will be free fair and credible to the most attainable standards*.
1. IEBC has made it clear that any mischievous activity at a polling station will be the responsibility of the electoral officials there. If the PO messes up then he will be crucified alone. If each polling station produces good work then we are guaranteed credible results.
2. The issue of ballot papers not stamped at the back is a criminal offense. IEBC has instructed all POs to note the names of clerks 3, 4 and 5 and ensure at all times that the ballot papers are stamped. POs and DPOs will ensure that each ballot paper issued is stamped.
3. KIEMS is designed to capture the details of each voter biometrically and as such no dead voters will vote. If at all the voter is not found biometrically then the alphanumerical search is initiated and the PO will cross check the details on ID and the one found and if it’s not matching then he can either validate or invalidate the voter allowing him/her to vote or not. The PO is required to fill form 32A whenever he validates a voter. It’s important to note that the manual register is a print out of the KIEMS and if the voter is not found in KIEMS then he cant and won’t be allowed to vote.
4. At the close of voting, KIEMS notifies the RO that the station has been closed and it calculates the number of voters who have been identified which must tally with the number of ballot papers issued.
5. The ballot papers have specific serials for each polling station and therefore no ballot papers of other stations can be found somewhere else.
6. When transmitting results KIEMS would not allow the number of votes to exceed the limit of 700 meaning no candidate can have more votes i.e no stuffing of ballot papers.
7. The number of ballot papers issued to each candidate must tally because every single voter MUST be issued with 6 ballot papers ensuring that no elective position will have more votes meaning the tally of votes must match for each polling station.
8. Result Transmission will be once and witnessed by all agents present. The forms 34A to 39A must be filled and signed by all agents presents who confirm the results being sent.
IEBC is determined to ensure the elections are free, fair and credible. This is at least from their verbal commitments, therefore, we must accord then the benefits of doubts.
President Uhuru Kenyatta couldn’t help it too but made Joho get re-elected early enough. He loves the man. He loves Joho secretly. Imagine someone coming to your own home many times while ignoring you then has the audacity to ask ‘ unanifuatia nini ? Kwani we ni bibi yangu ? ‘ I wouldn’t lie to you that Emir Sultan Ali Hassan Joho doesn’t fascinate me too. He’s what we call in my village ‘ Imbuli yumutakhaa ‘ Find Senator Khalwale @Kbonimtetezi and ask him what it means, he’s one too. I am not a pretender and those who think that journalists like myself shouldn’t have a political opinion can go hug a cactus. First, we are Kenyan citizens who love our country before we become journalists. Secondly, our constitution gives us the privilege of voting.
Before I vote as a journalist, I need to know who am voting for and why am doing so. Back to business now. When you look at Africa without further ado , Moeletsi Mbeki was not damned for stating that ‘ major political reforms bring important changes in the lives of ordinary people, sometimes for better but other times for worse ‘ Lumpen radicalism is a political tradition of unruliness – and at times resistance – in which fantasies of male power, control and desire have always been deeply entangled with ‘ war envy ‘ and an almost insatiable appetite for money, luxuries, and women .
It is a direct product of the influx-control system, the mass forced removals and relocations and the relentless and all pervading social and economic insecurity that have for long been the hallmarks of the common mwananchi experience.Our politicians have taught us that power is first conquered on the streets, burial ceremonies where populist characters thrive and cannibalize on the vulnerability of emotional mourners, Harambee, and even local soccer matches if not bullfighting ceremonies then translate into the domain of home and formal institutions.
A life of shame, social humiliation, and dishonor is thought to be retrieved from abjection through conspicuous display and consumption of wealth. Question is, is the Kenyan youth ready? Wait a minute, who exactly is the youth in Kenya? The old goons Uhuru Kenyatta keeps dragging out of retirement for the mere fact that they have overwhelming experience when it comes to thievery of public funds and does an awesome job leaving behind ‘ without a trace scenarios? ‘ Young people wake up! Smell the coffee. The ascendency of the youth, its attempt to wrestle power from the older generation and to take charge of these adults is known as #Johoism.
It has for a long time coincided with periods of intense fracture of the youth life experience and the concomitant crisis of fear and imagination. What exactly are the youths afraid of? The assassination of the late Jacob Juma is still fresh in our minds. Would such have happened in say South Africa, do you think South Africans would even have imagined of ‘ accepting and moving on ‘ before burial? We have a serious accept and move on disease in this country. Just another way of saying ‘ you are cowards ‘. We must stop burying our heads in the sand and wake up! I love getting back to The Soweto Uprising whenever am discussing this. It remains the most notable episodes of all that took place in the 20th century around the world. It gave birth to the phenomenon of the ‘ Comrades ‘ in the 1980’s when the apartheid state’s hold over the township in South Africa was weakened by none other than young people. In Kenya, the signs of entropy are there for all to see.
They are particularly dramatized by the dilemmas of unemployment and the expansion of spaces of vulnerability in all arenas of everyday life.Despite the emergence of a struggling middle-class, a rising superfluous population is becoming a permanent fixture of the Kenyan social fabric with possibilities of ever being exploited by the haves. Would you blame them for turning to Sports Pesa as their most cherished source of income? Now the haves who have been busy gambling with their lives since independence want to kill their only source of income. Truth is, most young people in this country are barely holding onto the ledge. They are likely never to get full-time formal employment or enter the proletarian economy. Stuck in the field of blighted possibilities, they scavenge to live or simply to get through the day – so many bad jobs available to so few in one of the most ethnic unequal countries on earth; so much rage, almost no future.
For those in survival mode – and who know too well what it means to experience social humiliation first hand – A heart of A Lion is all you need to stand up and say enough is enough! And this time round our lion is none other than #Simba001, Emir Sultan Of The Republic Of Kenya. Go Joho go! Save Kenya while you still can.
Note: Writer is a journalism student in India, views are his own andnot necessarily of Kenya Insights
Under 48hours, Kenyans will be streaming into polling stations countrywide to put final decision into perspective after a long, tiresome campaign period. Kenyans will be walking with high hopes that their individual vote counts and for the win of their selected candidate. Kenyans are putting their little hope on the referee, IEBC to conduct a scratch free election for an acceptable results.
IEBC enjoys dangerously minimal public confidence which is a deadly situation for such a body to go with into an election where majority think they’re compromised by the power elite. However, with such a disastrous state, IEBC has done little or nothing to improve their relations and gain public interest. If anything, IEBC has been sinking deeper and deeper into oblivion given their poorly informed decisions painting them in the public eye as being dishonest. The unanimous voice Jubilee has been according to the electoral body has done more damaging than good as they come out to be in sync.
If there’s one thing that has been holding Kenyans hopes together in IEBC then it is the Integrated Electronic System, KIEMS which the general belief is the only guarantee of getting fair results. The designers of this system factored into locking out illegitimate voters. Dead voters have been used several times to bungle elections. Post 2007/08 historic violence, one of the legislations recommended by Judge Kriegler of South Africa, was having an electronic voting system as a measure of preventing chaos. KIEMS conveniently locks out the ghost, double voting, and ballot stuffing. To prevent imminent violence in the next hours, the system MUST not fail.
Given struggling trust IEBC has with the public, the failure of the system will shoot up suspicions and probably will spark the violence. The weight that the success of this system holds to the country is unimaginable. It is the holding strong. Anything manual is read with suspicions.
I found it absolutely stupid and miscalculation given the timing that IEBC announces that nearly 25% of polling stations countrywide don’t have internet coverage. What this then means is the presiding officers in the affected areas will have to walk, run it crawl around looking for places with a network. While it is not unusual to find some areas to have poor network coverage, it is unforgivable that IEBC didn’t factor this in early enough to ensure the constituency centers where final results will be made have sufficient network coverage.
IEBC has contingency plan where satellite phones would be used in remote areas without sufficient network coverage. It baffles why IEBC would even stroke the idea of having POs move from the centers in the pretext of looking for a network.
Being that final tallying will be made at night, having presiding officer sprinting around looking for the tallest tree to transmit the results puts the lives of officers at risk from being attacked by evilly minded elements. This movement of looking for a network gives a window period for results manipulation. We adopted the electronic transmission simply because of what Jubilee is reverting to. Results are most likely to be manipulated in this space. If you look keenly at the list of flagged counties, you’ll realize majority are from the strongholds of Jubilee and NASA. It doesn’t need rocket science to tell the possible motives. If an officer is attacked or even kidnapped going missing with the forms it simply paralyzes the system.
Even if we didn’t have the satellite phones, a scanned form 34 which is what the presiding officer is supposed to send is a small size data barely 2MBs which can easily be sent via GPRS, 2G internet. Officers don’t have to travel 100KMs+ just to find the 3G for sending data. This idea is filthy, must not be pursued as it gives more than enough loopholes to tamper with real results. This is most likely to bring back the mind games of delaying results from certain areas as cooking gets balancing. Tharaka Nithi is an example that can’t escape many minds.
The CEO Chiloba whose real in IEBC is being read with sharp eyes, has detracted earlier decision that unstamped ballot is valid. Now any ballot that is unstamped will be taken as invalid. Why would my vote be wasted on the negligence of officers who are supposed to ensure every ballot is stamped. The directive simply allows for incompetence to have a seat. If a vote is invalidated for not being stamped them the presiding officer must be held liable. Had IEBC done enough voter education to ensure such avoidable mistakes? This loophole again gives room for foul play as we can have systematic votes spoilage through deliberate skipping of the stamps.
As I’ve mentioned, the failure of the electronic system will be the start of mayhem, this isn’t pessimism but the reality. Hopes of many Kenyans for a credible poll lays on that system. The death of Msando has dealt blue to the IEBC further running over its credibility. IEBC must, therefore, ensure system the works without a hitch as they’ve repeatedly assured or they’ll have failed Kenyans.
And if you asked me whether the system will fail, my answer is a big YES! It will fail either mechanical failure or induced failure which was the case in 2013 and the monkeys didn’t change, they just moved into a new forest.
Kenyans over 18 years will on Tuesday have the opportunity to cast their vote for the election of the President. It is probably the most important decision they will make until the next election, five years from now — more even than the bribery they will be offered for the vote.
In order to understand the significance of the vote, we have to remind ourselves of the nature and importance of the Constitution. Kenyans are rightly very proud of their Constitution and its objectives and values.
They represent the sovereignty of Kenya, which they must guard even as they go to vote — for elections are no less than the delegation of most powers of the state to the President. It would be a great tragedy if the powers were given to the candidate who has little respect for the values and procedures of the Constitution.
Then all the struggles and sacrifices of Kenyans to secure this Constitution would have been wasted — and in this way we will also have betrayed those who sacrificed most.
VALUES OF THE CONSTITUTION
By now, most Kenyans understand these values — after all these are the values they demanded. We must vote for that candidate who shows the greatest respect for these values, for, once elected, it is not easy to remove the President, and the harm that the president can do the people and the state is enormous harm.
Briefly, constitutional values and goals include national unity, respect for diversity, human rights, respect for all citizens, equality, social and economic rights, democracy and devolution, people’ participation in affairs of the state, and respect for the Constitution and the law. It is because the achievement of these objectives depends on the government that presidential elections are so important, for the president runs the government and has a big impact also on the economy and people’s lives.
However, to a very significant extent, the achievement of these objectives depends on another objective: Good governance, integrity, transparency, accountability and the separation of state powers (integrity aiming at the elimination of corruption, perhaps the most critical problem facing Kenya).
The exercise of presidential power can be questioned and challenged. Some of the checks or brakes on presidential powers are the jurisdiction of an independent judiciary to judge the validity of presidential action or decision, requirements of people’s participation, a number of independent commissions to “protect the sovereignty of the people, secure the observance by all state organs of democratic values and principle, and promote constitutionalism”, protected powers and functions of the counties, and considerable autonomy of the police.
The national parliament can also question the policies or acts of the executive and has the power to impeach the president (though with a majority of parliamentary support, those powers are hard to invoke). The practice of imperial presidency is still so strong that the president has been able to get away with serious violations of the Constitution or laws.
HOW ARE WE TO DECIDE BETWEEN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES?
To decide on the presidency, it is necessary to analyze the functions and powers of the president. Perhaps the most important is the president must promote and enhance the unity of the nation; promote respect for diversity of Kenyans; ensure the protection of human rights and fundamental freedom and the rule of law; uphold and safeguard the sovereignty of Kenya; and in “respect, uphold and safeguard this Constitution”. The way in which presidential powers are exercised is often apparent from the situation of the economy, accessibility of young people to education, the state of health of the people and availability of medical treatment, and disparities of incomes and opportunities among people of different communities and counties. Another test is whether the president goes beyond his or her powers—for example, the powers of the president are very limited visa-a-vis the police and security forces, and none over the judiciary. A good test would be how far the president has unified the country by the equal treatment of all communities and areas.
NASA politicians Mudavadi and Kalonzo boogie during the final rally at Uhuru Park
How do we apply these tests to the candidates, only one of whom has served as president? And there seems to be only one other candidate with significant experience in politics and public life? Our task is made easier that only two candidates are treated as having a chance of being elected — Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, both of whom have considerable experience of public affairs, policy making, etc.
At this stage, another test would be how these candidates and their parties have conducted the election campaigns so far — especially as the Constitution sets out in great detail the qualifications and behavior of parties and candidates. Unfortunately, in Kenya, the electoral behavior of most parties has become shameful to the extreme — and sadly provides no choice when it comes to voting.
WHO WILL BECOME DEPUTY PRESIDENT?
An important consideration in voting for president should be the candidate’s running mate, to which little attention has been paid. The Constitution provides for the assumption of the presidency by the deputy in case of the absence or temporary incapacity of the President or whenever the president so decides.
The deputy becomes president automatically if the president is removed by impeachment, ill-health or dies; and exercises a full five-year term if the former president had served less than half the normal presidential term. It is obvious that very serious consideration should be given to the running mate when voting for president.
Little needs to be said about Uhuru’s choice of his running mate, William Ruto. He too seems to have little understanding of the Constitution or does not care about it. He has made a huge fortune in a relatively short span of time, mostly, it is suspected, in devious ways, like land grabbing, and, in a short time, he has built himself a huge fortune. Few Kenyans would be comfortable with the idea of his presidency. A one-time admirer of Raila (as was Uhuru), he has changed his position fundamentally — no doubt for convenience.
Raila has chosen his running mate more sensibly, Kalonzo. At least he does not carry the recklessness of Ruto. Despite being in government for a long time, Kalonzo does not have a known record of corruption that would even touch the reputation of Ruto for graft. He seems more thoughtful and reflectful and, during his time in opposition, he has shown some consistency.
Kenyans would do well to vote for Raila if only to spare us from Ruto.
President Uhuru in his last stretch of campaigns at Uhuru Park
KENYATTA’S RECORD
Since Uhuru is the only candidate who has been President, I intend to judge his record largely by reference to his conduct over the four-and-a-half years. He has considerable charm and seems caring for others (as I learnt during Bomas).
Though I believe that his concern is serious, he does not seem to be able to translate it into concrete policies, as was obvious when he was a Cabinet minister. But the long period of imperial presidential rule which he tasted at close quarters for years, has given him the notion that presidents can do what they like — a kind of arrogance otherwise so out of his character.
As a general point, no candidate, who does not fully subscribe to constitutional values, in theory, and practice, should be supported for the presidency. Of these values, the two most important qualities needed for the position are integrity and nationalism/patriotism. Ever since Independence, beginning with and incited by Jomo Kenyatta, ethnicity has been critical in politics and business, fostered by “leaders”, deliberately creating a sense of hostility among “tribes”, and not infrequently violence.
Corruption was the pre-occupation of those who captured the state, and used its resources and access to foreign loans — and its coercive power — to enrich themselves. The scale of corruption is monumental. Uhuru has shown little concern with this state of affairs. The state services employ a proportionally high degree of the Kikuyu, as are profitable businesses requiring state patronage (the Kenyatta enterprises also benefit from the favors of the state).
The result is that Uhuru becomes essentially an agent of these groups, a presidential candidate at their dictates — no longer an independent president, who swore an oath to ensure social and economic rights of all Kenyans. The disparities between the rich and the poor have increased at an alarming rate; class distinctions are rapidly overtaking ethnic or religious differences. More and more people live in appalling poverty.
A second term of Uhuru will reinforce the notion that Kenya belongs to the Kikuyu, further damaging the prospects of a common citizenship and national unity. These two factors should disqualify him from public support. But there are many other examples of his disregard of the Constitution, which I have documented in several articles in the Star ever since he became president. For example, he early removed the autonomy of the police by amending the law; some of the independence was restored by a ruling of the court.
Likewise, he tried to bring the judiciary under his control, by bringing his people into the Judicial Service Commission and to control the appointment of judges, including the Chief Justice. The public and the judiciary fought back; he had to give in. He has very grudgingly “allowed” the establishment of devolution but has imposed various restrictions on the counties, and left behind a large force, responsible to the central government.
Huge crowd of NASA supporters at Uhuru Park where Raila held his last rally.
From his numerous statements, especially those about his authority, one gets the impression that he has not read the Constitution, or at least not understood the scope of his authority. His economic policies, involving huge loans, have been criticized, as have the inadequate accounting of foreign and local loans. And he seems to have taken over a year for his political campaign, paying little attention to his duties as president and head of government.
VOTE FOR RAILA ODINGA?
There are many arguments in support of Raila. Unlike Uhuru, he is a mature politician. The election of a non-Kikuyu will augur the path to a feeling of nationhood. Again, unlike Uhuru, he has fought against dictatorship and paid a heavy price for it, including a long period of imprisonment.
Of all the Kenyan politicians I have met, he has reflected more than any one on constitutions as well as the system of government — and decided in favor of parliamentary (a system which might have spared us the violence, intrigues, bribes, etc). I could always count on Raila’s support when Moi and Kibaki opposed the Bomas draft; Raila should get great credit for the wonderful Constitution that we now have.
He has a sophisticated understanding of nationhood and fairness. He seems to be able to make his own decision, which Uhuru seems incapable of. It seems unlikely that he would take orders from a cabal. He is an enthusiastic supporter of devolution and would like to see more functions and funds allocated to the counties — a position that has wide support in the country. He will need to be a bit tougher with his staff than in the past.
His victory would be widely seen, locally and in other countries, as a fitting reward for his long political service as well as being done out of proper rewards in some previous elections — a defeat that he took remarkably He understands the nature of politics in a way that eludes Uhuru. And he does seem to have read the Constitution and is committed to making it work.
Kenyans desperately need a president who is committed to the Constitution, as was Mandela, which brought about a renaissance in South Africa. Neither Kibaki nor Uhuru liked the new Constitution; it is the time we had a champion of it for the future to which millions of Kenyans committed themselves through the Constitution.
I do not intend to suggest that Raila does not have any weaknesses. When he was Prime Minister in the coalition government, there were a number of false moves (more the responsibility of his senior staff) that alienated the support of civil society and other supporters. If he becomes president, he would have to take control and seriously guard against corrupt, opportunistic individuals and tribal chauvinists from defining and guiding his leadership. He should also not allow himself to be mesmerized by power.
Even with his known frailties, he towers way above Uhuru. It may also be that he has learnt from earlier experience. He has now very competent, honest and reliable advisers, including Zein Abubakar, David Ndii, and Salim Lone — known to many for their intelligence, integrity, commitment to a fair regime and social justice, and the Constitution as a whole.
Kenyans would lose a great opportunity if they did not vote for Raila Odinga.
Writer is an activist and constitutional advocate. Views his own.
