In less than three months, Kenya’s premier media organisation, Nation Media Group (NMG), has lost close to 80 per cent of its key journalists and columnists to its rivals.
Such a mass exodus of professionals from one entity is unprecedented in the history of the Kenya’s media. So what is happening at the Nation Centre?
For a media house that is known for its rather cold-hearted poaching of good journalists from other media houses, the shoe is now on the other foot as the media giant appears to falter, with its star journalists scrambling out as if the house were on fire.
Gloom hangs in the air at the converged newsroom on the third floor of Kimathi Street’s most famous address, as both journalists and managers wonder who would be the next to walk out of thegrand “House the Aga Khan build” in the early 1990s as a testament to the NMG’s dominance of the regional media business.
While NTV, the media company’s TV station, has haemorrhaged all its familiar faces – Linus Kaikai, Jamila Mohammed, Victoria Rubadiri, Larry Madowo, Pamela Asigi among many others – the newspapers have lost not only their best news journalists, but also their most outstanding columnists.
Already, the effect of the departure of the media group’s best men and woman is being felt, with the quality of news falling further behind the competition.
The group’s newspapers have now become infamous for a low-brow, unethical form of journalism derided by teachers of journalism as “vendetta journalism”.
The editing standards have slumped, with embarrassing typos sticking out of editorial pages everyday like sore thumbs, to use a cliché.
So what has happened to the once revered media house?
Journalists are unequivocal: Nation’s editorial management has fallen in the wrong hands with intolerance, partiality, corruption and selfish interests taking precedence over the duty to inform.
Tom Mshindi.
Self-serving editors (fingers are being pointed at two senior ones) have captured the media group and woe unto the journalist that dare cross their path.
Unable to stand the unethical and unprofessional behaviour of the two condescending men, referred to as “the two musketeers”, conscientious journalists are walking out in droves.
Those that would not conform to the whims of these two men are being pushed out under the guise of restructuring, which at the Nation is euphemism for victimisation.
Insiders are clear that the retrenchments are used by managers to victimise employees they hate or who would not entertain unethical and unprofessional instructions from compromised editors.
The shenanigans at the Nation is evidence that the biggest threat to media freedom in Kenya today is not the state or the corporate world, but senior editorial managers who have sold the soul of the media to the highest bidder.
Every journalist now knows that some editors, especially those of the publicly listed media houses, have captured their respective media and are using their influence for personal gain, mainly by supporting the political elite of the day in exchange for material favours.
It is common knowledge that quite a number have joined the league of “tenderpreneurs” – people who use influence to secure government tenders for which they are overpaid.
For instance, everyone at NMG knows that at least two editors have benefited immensely from government tenders over the last one year, making them join the ranks of the rich. According to a journalist who spoke with The Nairobi Law Monthly, the Editor-in-Chief holds controlling shares in 360 Degrees Media Consulting, together with MKU founder Simon Gicharu, which, along with Oxygene PR, are said to have been the local partners of Cambridge Analytica.
Simon Gicharu.
Through them, Cambridge Analytica developed online media campaigns that portrayed Raila Odinga as a blood-thirsty individual who is also sympathetic to Al Shabaab and having no development agenda. On the other hand, Uhuru was portrayed as being tough on terrorism, and being good for the economy. The said editor has since won lucrative government tenders in the communication sector.
These shenanigans have attracted the eye of NMG’s majority shareholder, the Aga Khan, who, a couple of weeks ago deployed a special team from Aiglemont Estate, France, to probe activities in Nairobi.
Aiglemont Estate is the global headquarters of His Highness The Aga Khan and it is the seat of the Board of Directors that oversees his businesses around the world.
As a businessman, the Agha Khan is gravely concerned about the company’s performance and has reportedly been asking very tough questions.
It is not clear what the special team has recommended but it is widely expected that senior heads will roll. As an indication of things to come, one of the group’s more honest editors, Eric Obino, who had been elbowed out for refusing to toe the line of the “musketeers” was recently reinstated.
The mess created in the editorial department of NMG has, naturally, negatively affected the company’s books, with financial results for last year showing a huge drop in earnings.
The media house recorded an embarrassing 20 per cent drop in profit before taxation last year, earning a disappointing Ksh1.95 billion, from Ksh2.46 billion in 2016. Consequently, the share value has tumbled from about Sh300 to about Sh100 today.
Despite last year being an election year, which is usually a good season for media, both advertising and circulation dropped. Advertising revenue dipped by more than 40 per cent while there was an almost 50 percent drop in circulation.
Reports indicate that the circulation of the Daily Nation has dropped from a high of 180,000 copies per day to about 90,000. Saturday Nation’s sales have nosedived from more than 260,000 copies to about 150,00 while the Sunday Nation which used to hitmore than 320,000,is now at about 180,000.
The media group is reaping what it has been sowing for a while now. Kenyan consumers of media are a fairly sophisticated lot who have no time for a sloppy, dishonest news media. Consequently, they have taken their eyeballs and their money elsewhere.
While the departure of the star TV journalists led by Kaikai dealt a huge blow to NTV, the departure of the columnist undermined the daily and weekly newspapers’ claim to leadership as an opinion shapers.
The eight leading columnists resigned two months ago, citing lack of editorial independence and undue censoring of their articles by especially the two notorious editors. By resigning, the columnists Maina Kiai, George Kegoro, Muthoni Wanyeki, Gabriel Dolan, and Rasna Warah, Gabrielle Lynch, Nic Cheeseman, and Kwamchetsi Makokha gave NMG the contempt card.
Some have already relocated to the Standard, Nation’s main competitor, whose fortunes have soared since the appointment of Joe Odindo, one Kenya’s best editors, as editorial boss. Their readers have followed suit.
“We are aware that the singular privilege to contribute comes with the tacit compact to promote and protect intellectual freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of information, which anchor freedom of the media,” they said as they departed.
At one time, there were rumours that President Uhuru Kenyatta was planning to buy the majority stake from the Aga Khan and that some NMG managers had been briefed to deliberately bring down the publicly listed company so that the president could buy it on the cheap. However, the NMG management later clarified that the Aga Khan did not plan to sell his shares.
Kenya’s democracy is evidently on the decline and the media have contributed immensely to this lamentable state of affairs. As the institution placed in the unique position to safeguard democracy, media’s performance over the last few months has been very disappointing.
Like fake preachers, media (or individuals within it) have abused the trust people have in them to promote either their selfish interests, or the interests of people in power. While NMG stands out because of its position and reach, the others are not innocent either.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga today left many tongues wagging after signing an impact that would put to an stop a lengthened political animosity that has clouded Kenya for months since the botched elections of August 2018. The two decided to bury their hatchet in a shocking move that has left other NASA principals in distraught and surprised. Miguna Miguna who was instrumental in his swearing in and was consequently deported to Canada is one man who was obviously going to be of interest in the latest development. Below is his statement.
I have been advised of media reports that the People’s President, Raila Amolo Odinga has “reconciled” with the despotic president Uhuru Kenyatta. I understand that Mr. Odinga has further stated that the “conflict is over” and called on the country to “reconcile and move on.”
Mr. Odinga’s unilateral, irrational and erratic decision to betray the fight for electoral justice, the culture of impunity and the flagrant abuse of human rights that have become routine under the illegitimate regime of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto cannot be justified.
Between July 2017 to the present, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto have murdered more than 380 innocent civilians in cold blood. These martyrs were butchered by agents of the illegitimate Jubilee administration they were perceived to be “supporters” of Raila Odinga.
These victims of a brutal and blood curdling regime include Baby Pendo, 9-yeasr old Stephanie Moraa, 7-year old Geoffrey Mutinda, the I.E.B.C.’s director for technology Chris Msando, the 18 young men who perished during Raila Odinga’s homecoming journey between the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and the Central Business District on November 17, 2018, the three people who were shot dead by the gangster regime at Ahero Town as they protested against my illegal abduction, incommunicado detention without trial and forceful exile in February 2018, and many more who have died as they protested against the fraudulent election of August 8th, 2017.
President Uhuru and Raila shake hands after signing a pact at Harambee House, Nairobi.
As Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta toast, hug and laugh in Nairobi, I remain marooned in Canada because I swore the former in at Uhuru Park on January 30th, 2018. I am here against my will. I am here despite the fact that I have a birthright to be in Kenya. I am here against my will because the illegitimate regime of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto violated my constitutional and human rights, subverted the constitution, disobeyed multiple court orders and refused to operate within the rule of law.
In other words, the “reconciliation” between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila is a fundamental betrayal of the hundreds of innocent Kenyans who have lost their lives fighting for democracy and in defense of Raila Odinga’s stolen electoral victories of 2007, 2013 and 2017.
The ‘bridges” Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta are talking about and intend to build will turn Kenya into an authoritarian and despotic Kenyatta and Odinga Monarchy.
The “reconciliation” betrays the principles for which the National Resistance Movement Kenya (NRMKe) was established, which is to fight for electoral justice, social justice, the protection of and respect for the constitution and our fragile democracy, respect for the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.
It betrays everything the NRMKe and I have stood and fought for. As such, I cannot support it.
True reconciliation of Kenyans is not about two people shaking hands but building a just and equal society governed by the rule of law, respect for human rights and an end to corruption and tribalism.
The “reconciliation” Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga are talking about is not intended to help the unemployed youth get jobs and the millions of homeless Kenyans get shelter. It is not intended to help the struggling workers; the professionals and middle class secure their future and livelihoods. It is meant to cement the 55-year domination by a few elites and families over 99 per cent of suffering Kenyans.
I will return to Kenya on March 26, 2018 so as to continue the struggle for electoral justice and the culture of impunity that both Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta now represent.
I will join with all progressive Kenyans in bringing about concrete, substantive and fundamental structural and institutional changes that Kenyans deserve. Aluta Continua.
After beefed up secession talks in the country in all communication platforms, as a nation we’ve portrayed a picture of Discomfort and Resistance. It all began long ago since Kibaki era, back in 1998, when Kibaki leader of opposition against Daniel Moi had proposed secession plan with his Central Kenya legislators counterparts on the basis that, “A government that kills her people, discriminates her people along tribal lines has no moral authority to Govern them”. He had suggested formation of “Central Republic of Kenya”that was to include Nakuru, Laikipia, Meru, Embu, The five Central Kenya Counties and Nairobi. Hon Kihika Kimani was to be the mobilizer of the Army troops.
Former President His Excellency Mwai Kibaki
Today 19years later it has revived back in a new phase and a bill has been presented before legal authorities for scrutiny. Lately, an Opposition legislator and an Advocate by profession Hon. Peter Kaluma had tabled a Secession Bill before IEBC for perusal. Below is a summary:
The MP states in the bill that successive regimes have violated the national values and principles of governance as set out in Article 10 of the Constitution.
He accuses successive governments of entrenching ethnic discrimination and exclusion, injustice in public service and in distribution of natural resources. He notes that important appointments remain a preserve of just a few, that the national budget is skewed to benefit a few groups/communities/regions and that all other regions are marginalized and rendered mere tax payers.
He accuses the current regime led by President Uhuru Kenyatta of undermining devolution and concentrating power and resources in the national government.
He also reasons that previous regimes have captured the state and hold hostage and weaken parliament, commissions and independent offices in a bid to retain political and economic power.
He also accuses the government of political assassinations, manipulation of ethnic census and voter register, flagrant rigging of elections and suppression of other groups/communities/regions not seen to be regime-friendly.
Member of Parliament Hon.Peter Kaluma
After indepth Evaluation,i came and like many others have come to the reality that Secession talks aren’t priority but an option among many other more avenues by opposition to pinch out disgracefully rogue Jubilee Government from power.
Firstly, following causative agents of Self-Determination precisely in Kenyan situation and like many other victims of this revolution of Secession, it has always been Government oppression, purely politics which has been fueled by; Tribalism, Anarchy, Autocracy, Despotism and Self-Ego. Government’s all inclusivitiness are just hullabaloo words without action. At a point when a caretaker government profiles her citizens as ‘militia’ for boycotting pre-determined shambolic Electoral exercise results is a wake up call to the reality of Exclusivity. Such Government would deliberately attack such people in the name of encountering ‘militia’ in a genocidal mission to silence the majority. This is absolutely Terrorism Radicalization in place.
Secondly, the Big man syndrome is catalysing secession which is contagious. We’ve rarely or ignored talks about products of secession thereafter.Obvious Aftermath lyrics has always been bloodshed and death of innocent vigilantes but in the long run besides bloodshed and death of these oppressed, like i said Secession syndrome is contagious, after 30years or more to come in those ‘new’ Republics that would be formed,tribal politics will again invade, superiority and inferiority measures, agreement and disagreement,Government and opposition. Some tribes will get dissatisfied again and would want to again withdraw.
Ofcourse a Government won’t run without opposition inclusion for a complete Ecosystem. Opposition will be formed by the same people who had pushed for these reforms then will have divided because they feel some inequality, fraudulent system and corrupt government and one time will call for Self-Determination. If Raila is the Big Man, thereafter secession he won’t rule forever and many more Big men like him will emerge and will also want the same, to go the direction. It will be an endless war of secession.
If at all Secession succeeds, the Government in that Republic should make no similar mistakes because we will have Life Cycle of Secessions which is a show of wavy Leadership.
Recommendation
Structure of an All-Inclusive Government formed by UNCOMPROMISED individuals Willing fully and Legally elected by the People might be a better option for the sake of such crisis but unfortunately this is like an illusion in Africa Continent as we have been umblically coded and have unconditional romance towards compromised individuals.
Every Citizen must feel satisfied and catered for, resources equally distributed and system set well.
NAIROBI — In a statement about Kenya’s Oct. 26 election released today, The Carter Center urged Kenya’s political leaders to engage in constructive dialogue to bridge the gap between the opposition and ruling parties, and their respective supporters, following a tense electoral period.
Kenya’s fresh presidential election, scheduled following the Supreme Court’s annulment of the Aug. 8 race, unfolded in a context of heightened tensions stemming from the protracted electoral process, confrontational tactics and harsh verbal attacks by key political leaders, and outbursts of violence around election day. These problems severely undermined the ability of Kenya’s electoral and judicial institutions to implement the fresh presidential elections. Rather than consolidating support for a national political program, the election polarized the country and exposed the deep tribal and ethnic rifts that have longed characterized its politics.
Regrettably, the actions of Kenya’s political leaders served to weaken its democratic and independent institutions, constrain the ability of citizens to participate in the civic affairs of their country, and damage the nation’s democratic development. In the days ahead, it is incumbent on political leaders to put personal agendas aside and take steps to heal the country while maintaining the country’s constitutional order.
Today’s statement provides an initial summary analysis of political and electoral developments between the Aug. 8 elections and the fresh election held on Oct. 26, based on the reporting of the Center’s core team of experts and long-term observers who were on the ground for the Oct. 26 poll. We note that the electoral process is not yet complete, as electoral disputes are pending in the Supreme Court. The Carter Center will release a comprehensive statement on the overall election process after its completion. A detailed final report will be published in early 2018.
The Carter Center has had a core team of experts in Kenya since April, monitoring key parts of the electoral process, including voter registration, campaigning, electoral preparations, and the recent resolution of disputes in the courts. That team was joined by a large group of observers who helped monitor voting, counting, and tallying in the days surrounding the Aug. 8 election. Following the Sept. 1 decision by the Supreme Court to annul the August election, the Center was invited by the IEBC to extend its presence to observe the Oct. 26 fresh election. Long-term observers rejoined the core team on Oct. 4 and were deployed to various locations in the country to observe critical pre- and post-election processes.
Because of insecurity surrounding the polls, the uncertain political environment, and the lack of a fully competitive election, the Carter Center deployed a limited election observation mission to assess the Oct. 26 polls. The team was limited in size and geographic scope. Given these factors, the Center did not conduct a robust assessment of polling station level processes on election day.
After losing people in the streets to police bullets, NASA switched their strategies up after Uhuru was declared a winner in an election that has left the world shocked given its massive failure. Kenneth Roth, the Human Rights Watch CEO has described Uhuru’s win as laughable, he recently tweeted, “With a laughable 98.3% of the vote (though a mere 38% turnout), Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta claims a sort of “victory.”
Unlike the previous election where the Western community poured congratulatory notes to Uhuru almost immediately after he was declared, the repeat win has been treated with caution, no international leader is yet to openly congratulate Uhuru in his win. The legitimacy of his presidency is slowly sinking in as nonexistent.
NASA has resorted to civil disobedience and is now on product boycott, the now National Resistance Movement instructed supporters to keep off Bidco, Safaricom and Brookside products as they were deemed to have contributed largely I funding Jubilee. The flagged companies have had their lifetime also in the past week.
Bidco, a company that has been battling bad publicity given bad reputation from it’s operations is once again a victim of the politics. According to claims made, Bidco has been used to launder billions of stolen taxpayers money inline funding the activities of Jubilee. This has been made possible by the conspiracy between the company and corrupt state officials.
Vimal Shah, the long-serving BIDCO CEO has been used as a decoy for cleaning Jubilee looted money back to the economy.
Vimal Shah between Dec 2012 and May 2013 he was a hunted man by KRA for tax evasion amounting to 175million he operated Btn courts injunctions to avoid arrest, he experienced two employees strikes due to backlog salaries.
2013 heading to 2014 Jubilee made a serious testy creamy corrupt deal that gave them nearly Sh.165billion kill. A theft of poor Kenyan taxes using SGR. Sh.165billion is massive money in the hands of looters, it bought a hotel in Singapore and the rest invested in Kenyan economy using Vimal Shah.
Vimal Shah who was unable to pay workers and a man KRA was on the chase turned a good friend of Jubilee his taxes were written off, his company got new heavy shareholders the Jubilee SGR proceeds got where to be cleaned. Vimalshah did a Sh2billion Bidco upgrade.
In 2015, Vimal Shah got more cash to clean from Jubilee’s Eurobond together with already SGR proceeds. Vimal Shah who was unable to raise Sh.175million KRA taxes now started building a Sh.350billion Bidco industrial park that will take nearly 12,000 employees when complete. The biggest industrial park in sub-Saharan Africa. Source of money no loan but left hand Kenyan taxpayers money.
Today Bidco Industrial Park, a multi-billion industrial park is third way operational and constructions still on, Vimal Shah is a decoy, not the owner, that is poor Kenyans stolen cash being cleaned to re-enter economy using Vimal Shah.
When Resist and Boycott were announced you saw how real owners of Bidco Industrial Park innocently came out furious and breathing blood, they tweeted like 5 times calling it extortion on Bidco. The real owners were speaking how Bidco Industrial Park massive expansion will create 12,000 employees. They forgot Brookside and Safaricom were equally mentioned but went ahead to only defend their massive looted investments. Ask yourself how they knew all about a private Bidco firm current and future plans? Only devil can explain, they left themselves naked.
Whatever Bidco has it’s your looted money, as you cry high cost of living the cause is Bidco, today you and other Kenyans are paying SGR loans which half is in private pockets being cleaned by Bidco Industrial Park to re-enter to the economy.
Bidco and some crazy Asian investors are the ones used to clean looted money. One is that Indian operating as RAI. With several manufacturing plants the idiot who as decoy used to steal Webuye Paper to private investment . Not him but some senior Jubilee, same to Bidco and Aga Khan owners of NTV, Super loaf Akida loaf and several hospitals etc.
A week ago, Crisis Group warned against Kenya having elections given the divisive elements within the country but that was disregarded and we went ahead with the elections. International media joined in the voices calling for the poll delay to prevent violence breaking but yet again, nobody listened. Many Kenyans are exhausted by the extended election drama, one that already has damaged the economy and further polarised the country. But faced with two bad options – proceeding with a vote despite the boycott of a candidate who won some 45 percent of votes the last time around, or accepting a limited delay – the latter option was the better one. The IEBC should have sought a limited postponement to allow sufficient time to prepare for an election that both main parties contest. Kenya’s political leaders should have supported such an extension and commit to participate in a new vote. But all these now in the past.
Came 26th the election day, for the first time in election history, lines remained empty, clerks were idle, there was a general election boycott, according to figures given by IEBC that only 6.5M voted turned out, translated to about 70% of registered voters keep away from voting.
The situation was so bad that even in Jubilee’s strongholds, the queues weren’t as long and voter turnout way lower as compared to August poll. In fact, this low turn out was a referendum on the credibility of the October 26 election, in which the entire country said “no thanks”. That even the president’s own supporters wouldn’t participate underscores that Kenyans across the political divide did not think that the event was worth their time.
Certainly, the boycott was a big factor. The fact that Raila Odinga said he would not participate made the whole thing less competitive for supporters of both parties. For many voters, this election was a contest between Kenyatta and Odinga, and when Odinga withdrew, it was no longer a contest. Whereas NASA supporters likely stayed home because the party asked them to, Jubilee supporters probably stayed home because they didn’t think it was worth their time to stand in line for an election their candidate was guaranteed to win. Either way, that says that voters didn’t believe that the event that took place on Thursday was worth it.
Apathy also probably played a part. While outsiders have only just started paying attention to this story, Kenyans have been living with this election for nearly three years. There have been protests, reforms speeches, announcements and intrigues at the IEBC since 2015. It was inevitable after the August iteration was canceled that there would be a dip in participation in any new election because many Kenyans are simply ready for the whole process to be over.
Jubilee campaigned on a platform of getting 70+1 of the votes, they held glittering rallies, bought in all the losers from NASA to create a popularity nation. It has turned out they bought punctured tires as none of the defectors added any substantial effects on the results. However, politics is game of perception and they created a false popularity. What was meant to be an election turned out to be a referendum and if we’re to use the turnout then we can say about 70% do not only have confidence in the sitting government but the electoral process.
The Electoral process in Kenya for past two decades has been faced with dysfunctions, nearly all elections have been marred with rigging claims and contested. Actually, the credibility of the process is the reason NASA boycotted. Generally, Kenyans are tired of being taken for granted by having their voices muted with persistent rigging. This boycott was a strong message that the power of the vote must be regained and that Kenyans have matured democratically to be taken for granted.
Uhuru is set to be declared the winner despite resounding disapproval by the majority who kept off the poll, but this show won’t stop the Jubilee duo from going ahead with their onslaught. Many have suggested that given how the election was a flop, charade as described by the media, Uhuru should decline and seek a fresh mandate. I have no doubt that would ever happen, they won’t leave it. Right now IEBC is working around the clock to make sure numbers do tally and despite evidence of low voter turnout, Uhuru is set to hit his previous 8M mark, this has to happen regardless of everything working against it.
Judiciary, one if not the only standing institution that has Kenyans hopes, came under the full Jubilee wrath this week. The day Supreme Court was once again in focus to determine whether the set 26th election would go ahead of not in a petition filed before the court.
Justice Maraga would later give a demoralizing news that the court lacked a quorum to hear the petition as only two judges were present; him and Lenaola. The rest didn’t show up, Justice Njoki a said to have missed her flight back home, Justice Ibrahim who was now a two-time no-show was apparently away in hospital, Mwilu couldn’t make it following her driver’s shooting yesterday as for Justice Wanjala, Ojwang they couldn’t make it to court. Kenyans were treated to a well-choreographed set.
The shooting of DCJ Mwilu’s bodyguard was a clear warning to her and the rest of defiant judges who refuse to play the ball. Direct threats and intimidation were clearly put in play to instill fear on the judiciary and it worked. “Today, Kenya has witnessed judicial delinquency when the several judges of the Supreme Court abdicated their Constitutional Duties.” Apollo Mboya, a lawyer described the situation.
Nyabola Nanjala a political analyst, added her voice to the disappointment from the Supreme Court,
“Even if not a single tear gas canister is launched today, the circumstances of this lack of quorum have undone something important. I’m not worried about political violence in the vein of 2007. I’m worried about disenfranchising a population by institutional manipulation. The thing that keeps getting lost in the conversations about this election is that on Friday, August 11 the police went into opposition strongholds and indiscriminately opened fire on civilians. According to KNHCR, 25 people died. Local media at first refused to cover it.”
She continued, “Even the Kenya Red Cross gave a statement and said we were imagining it. But people were there and they lived it and they were scared. I spoke to some. They said that they didn’t feel like this Kenya was theirs anymore. They felt disposable. And no human should feel that. That September 1 ruling did more to heal Kenya than people realize because it made people feel heard. It brought them back in. So even if this ruling hadn’t gone in favor of NASA people would have been more likely to respect it because it feels fairer. That’s the point of law and of a judiciary – not that you win every case but that you feel heard. That’s the point of due process. Whichever judges chose not to show up today have done more to damage Kenyan democracy than they realize. And that makes me angry. Because democracy is like any other relationship – you have to show up. Disagree on whatever however you like but you have to show up. Why should Samantha pendo’s family believe in due process if the most senior judges in the country won’t show up? And Mercy Moraa? Imagine getting shot at, being told it didn’t happen and then having to hear a judge didn’t show up because they couldn’t find a flight.”
Here’s the thing, Kenya is greatly polarized and after the election, it is even worse, last evening ethnic clash between the Kikuyu and Luos, Luhyas and Kisiis erupted in Kawangware, this was a glimpse of the general situation. Uhuru will definitely get the presidency but he has lost the country. When about three-quarter of the country shows disapproval you don’t ram it lightly. Uhuru’s hope is Kenyans will get tired, accept and move on like I’m 2013 but this is 2017 Kenyans are more radicalized, in fact, the administration has made tactical blunders by using police force on Odinga supporters expecting bullets to silence them, this has worked in reverse to silence them.
Raila had a fanatic following, he’s a single figure with unexplainable influence, you don’t expect life to move on swiftly and government-run smoothly when over six million supporters of Odinga feel disenfranchised. If Uhuru looks beyond his personal gains and family rivalry with Raila and starts thinking like a leader then he must know despising Raila is the biggest mistake he’s making. Surrounded with a cultic following, making sound judgment is close to impossible. It is for these leaders to stop hard stances and close heads together.
A dialogue shouldn’t be necessarily about nusu mkate actually it will be a great betrayal to the process of Odinga negotiates for such an agreement. This course is and has always been about the credibility of the election process as that is the cradle land of chaos and also the independence of institutions six as IEBC and judiciary. A close table meeting should address this issue and Kenya hold a fresh election. We can, however, bury heads in the sand, move on with all these stains until everything explodes. It is at a point a Uhuru chooses himself or the country. The world is watching. He can restore the democracy that has seen Kenya Kenya an outstanding country in Africa or turn it into anarchy as it seems and let the monkeys dance.
Evidently, the country is turn right in the middle, guns and bombs might bring silence but not peace it for this reason that we must put the fire off while we still can or play ostrich and watch the whole building engulfed
Moments after the tallying had started after the largely boycotted 26th election, the IEBC chairman who’s on record saying the laid structures couldn’t guarantee a credible election made a preliminary pronouncement. He announced voter turnout to be 48% which he described as the best estimate, this didn’t go well with many as it was expected for KIEMS to give exact numbers and statistics at the close of all polling stations.
IEBC has been on a confusion spree with many thrown off the cliff after every update. They’ve been a source of confusion rather than clarity for the simple reason that everything doesn’t seem to add up. An analysis by Shiundu of Africa Fact Check reveals the loopholes.
So, I have been told Chebukati has spoken about the issue of KIEMS and turnout. The IEBC chairman says 17,568 KIEMS kits identified 4,457, 458 registered voters “between 4 &5pm” on 26 October. So IEBC did the maths (4,457,458)/(9,200,411 total of voters in the 17,568 kits) *100 and got 48 %… but, wait.. 1hr, 4.5m voters using 17,568 kits? “Peak time,” he said. Boss, that is an average of 253 people identified per kit in one hour? Right?
One hour has 60 minutes, works out to four people being identified every minute, 1 person every 15 seconds! Haa! I don’t know about you, but for such efficiency, the 253 people standing in 17,568 stations would be in a beeline of sorts. If it wasn’t that efficient, it means, everyone in the queue, after the close of the station was allowed to vote before transmission. But just one quick question: Why did the snapshot pick 17,568 kits? Were they the only ones that transmitted at 5 pm?
If he could get the hourly data of transmissions for the 17,568 kits by 5 pm Thursday, it means there’s a log of hourly data for all? No? If 35,564 sent signal on station opening, and therefore within network coverage, why pick just 17,568 for hourly data?
Now, by 10 pm on October 26, 2017, 33,140 KIEMS kits had transmitted results showing 6,553,858 had voted. Okay… The votes closed at 5 pm, so, we take it that these 33,140 kits transmitted the final tally of those who had voted on 26/10/2017. Or what else would the transmission show? They’d authenticated voters, polls had closed, they had transmitted the log: Turnout, right?. Again, we presume that there were voters on the queue and the kits waited until everyone had been identified before transmission at 10 pm. But really, how many polling stations opened? For that, we go to the IEBC and find 35,564 declared they opened.
Very well, so, we go back to Chebukati, he says, by 10 pm, 33,140 had sent logs, that means 2,424 of those that opened hadn’t sent data. Now, if they managed to send a signal that station was open, it means they were within 3G range, right? If they were within 3G range at station opening, why hadn’t they sent logs at 10 pm after station closure? Were people voting perhaps? But the law requires the counting to be done at the polling station, and by that time, we’d know how many votes were cast.
Okay, the IEBC chairman then said that by October 28, 5 pm, 36,882 kits had reported showing a turnout of 7,573,903. The presumption is that the difference between transmitting 36,882 vs 35,564 that opened, the extra 1,318 didn’t have network coverage. Or how else would you explain why they were not captured in the logs of the stations that signaled they had opened?
We’re in a political crisis not a legal one, in spite of what the talking heads are saying.
The Legal Position: In spite of language in the 2013 Raila Odinga petition that suggested that the withdrawal of a candidate at this stage of an election could lead to fresh nominations I think that on balance the better view is that the IEBC will now treat this as an uncontested election and proceed to declare Uhuru elected unopposed. (The issue of fresh nomination was not an issue in that petition so, strictly speaking, what the court said then is not binding). There is, of course, the decision of the high court- still awaited- in the Ekuru Aukot case -challenging the anointing of Uhuru and Raila as the only candidates eligible to run on the 26th of October, 2017). This could still lead to other candidates being allowed to compete. God knows President Kenyatta now desperately needs this to go Ekuru’s way to give a bland simulacrum of formal legitimacy to what surely is a political curve-ball, irrespective of what Jubilee insiders might now say.
The Coming Institutional Decline: This brings me to the real issue. In my view, this is no longer a legal issue. In fact, further involvement by the court in this issue- whichever way- is not likely to resolve the underlying political problem.
As I see it what we have here is continuing institutional decline of a state which, over time, has become a pure instrument of political struggle and vehicle for pursuing elite interest. If you win power in Kenya, you can bend the law and the economy to your personal interest. This seemed to have changed somewhat under Kibaki but the state as instrument of the ruling power is back with a vengeance.
What we are seeing now is a country on the verge of becoming a ‘warlord democracy,’ a country in which who gets into office will be determined through violence – whether official violence or chaos by private militia and gangs- even though such violence will be marketed publicly in the name of the people. The economy has already been ‘criminalised’ and is bent to those in power and their cronies: as I said elsewhere Kenya is a contractor democracy in which commercial transactions are both personalized and clandestine, defeating all the theories of an open market. (Think- if you doubt our criminal economy- of the runaway corruption, open money laundering and wanton budget raiding at both the national and county level etc). The politics has, so far, been straddling between the lawful ( Sometimes we see compliance with rules and obedience to court decisions) and the unlawful (There is still open vote buying; the opponents are sometimes murdered- especially at lower levels and the hiring of gangs to break the knee-caps of the recalcitrant or the deployment of riot police in non-cmplianct regions).
In the next phase of this dangerous but evolving game, there will be even less pretence that we are playing normal politics. We shall have the unholy trinity of a) criminalized economy; b) warlord politics and c) a deeply polarized civil society (with some in the marginal areas heavily armed with guns smuggled from regional conflicts). From an economic perspective, the immediate risk is both domestic and external. Domestically, the contraction of economic activity will weaken government revenues, increase unemployment- especially youth unemployment- and ratchet up social stress, all destabilizing factors. Externally, as the government continues to clobber its opponents even as its revenues shrink, our sovereign rating will be further down-graded, making the interest payments on our growing external debt even more burdensome. Sooner than later we shall be talking to all the guys we hate talking to so much: our creditors, the IMF, the World Bank and other members of that usual gang.
The Limits of Law: Will the NASA boycott work though? As a general matter, I believe, that we lawyers are all too often seduced by our faith in the ability of law to solve social and political problems. Behind every constitution, I like to warn myself, is a fundamental moral principle, the commitment that a constitution will always be obeyed even – especially, I should say- when such obedience hurts our vital political interests. Judge Learned Hand once said that if liberty dies in the hearts of men and women neither the Constitution nor the Supreme Court can save it. Our problem right now is that our commitment to legal instrumentalism leaves us stranded on the horns of a cruel dilemma. We have an elaborate constitution but few citizens and leaders are committed to its robust enforcement. In fact, all the social media lawyer blathering by partisans of either side that “the law is clear” are just fig-leafs that mask competing power claims that have slender constitutional legitimacy. A heightening of the heat not a shedding of the light on the problem, if you see what I mean.
The Effect of Electoral Boycotts: Going forward, we are now hostages of fortune. Electoral boycotts are notoriously unpredictable. As a general point, such boycotts are important not because of their effect on the election results but because of their potential effect on the legitimacy of government if the boycott is effective.
A boycott can lead to 1) a terminal political crisis for the incumbents (as happened in Bangladesh in 1996); 2) no immediate effect on incumbents but a destruction of the opposition (as happened with Blaise Campaore in Burkina Faso in 1991 and Gnassingbe Eyadema in Togo in 1993); 3) a broader constitutional crisis- (as happened in Thailand in 2006- though this was a boycott of the announced election results. The elections were declared invalid by the constitutional court. This led to the resignation of the Electoral Commission with some Commissioners being later jailed for illegalities. A fresh election was then held at the end of that year, 2006).
The second part of outcome 2 – the destruction of the opposition- does not seem likely in Kenya. Elections in Kenya tend to be like an ethnic census. I don’t see NASA’s core support dissipating or crossing over to Jubilee, especially when the situation like the current one exists. Meaning that we are probably looking at a deepening political crisis in the medium-term, hence my fear that we will slide into a “Warlord Democracy” sooner rather than later.
The Brutal Truth: There is NO long-term solution that does not involve either 1) Uhuru and Raila agreeing a political solution (I don’t know the shape and content of that. I do not buy the argument that NASA has all along been playing this game to force a coalition government; or 2) failing that, Raila would have no choice but to up the ante if he wants to keep his base intact. Unfortunately, Uhuru is temperamentally incapable of restraint. His pride is easily wounded when he feels slighted and right now he seems to feel that the opposition do not see him as “Commander-in-Chief”. He will almost certainly call out the police and brutalize Raila’s base. Unfortunately, few countries can sustain a cycle of protest and violence beyond a month before the police and army break down into partisan political factions. If I am right about this, then one of either Raila or Uhuru will eventually buckle. When that happens, we shall revert to either option 1 – negotiations – in which Uhuru is the weaker party- as is always the case when an incumbent is forced to make concessions – or Government resistance with more aggressive repression targeting all regime opponents- in the short-term, this might politically marginalize Raila but it would take the country back to the early 1990s, which would incinerate any legacy that Uhuru thought he had secured.
We are in this situation because the antipathy between the Kenyattas and the Odingas has completely clouded either side’s perception of what a reasonable way out is. The two are a phone-call away from each other. I am sure they have each other’s cellphone numbers. And still they bellow at each other through TV microphones and loud-hailers at political rallies. The problem is that their respective political bases – egged on by their social media nutters- see the other side exactly as the two see each other: grasping and double-dealing ogres with whom it is impossible to strike a deal that could be honored. Uhuru’s core support is not pro-Uhuru, some are in fact viciously critical of him, they rather are rabidly anti-Raila. Raila still has more ‘religious’ support than Uhuru but this, too, has somewhat dissipated over time. Yet such support as he still has is hysterically anti-Uhuru. They too are shouting at each other across a chasm that might yet swallow the county. Thus does Kenya suffer from a family feud that increasingly begins to look like a blood feud. I despair.
(NB: There are some who think that I am exonerating the IEBC from culpability for running a monkey of an election. I am not. However, the form that the crisis has now taken is unquestionably driven by leaders. Once the Supreme Court delivered its judgment, it lay with the politicians to get the IEBC problem sorted out. Uhuru and Raila cannot sort IEBC out because they won’t talk to each other even though they both know that Kenya is hurtling to a terminal crisis. Of course, the structural cause of all this is our screwed up ‘state” as well as the terminally decrepit electoral system. However, the proximate cause is the politicians. And no, the structural problems cannot be addressed before the 26th of October 2017!)
Writer is a lawyer and seasoned columnist.
Opinions are writers own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Kenya Insights.
In a surprising turn of events, Raila Odinga announced on October 10 that he was withdrawing from the scheduled October 26 rerun of the 2017 presidential election. In September, the Supreme Court of Kenya held, by a 4-2 majority, that the original August 8 election was invalid because it was not held to the standard required by the law, granting Odinga a second shot at the presidency.
Superficially, Raila withdrawing from the polls with barely a fortnight to go would seem like a tremendous waste of political momentum for him personally, and the country’s time, money and energy more broadly.
However, upon examining the myriad of laws, regulations and court decisions that govern the election process in Kenya, the net effect of Raila’s decision may be effectively extending the election timetable – buying both his coalition and the Independent Election and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) more time.
Raila may also have thrown open the presidential rerun to more candidates than the two envisaged by the IEBC.
To understand how this works, we need to read the various pieces of Kenya’s election law scattered across five documents – the 2010 constitution, the 2013 Supreme Court decision on the presidential election, The Elections Act, Kenya’s election regulations on elections, and the majority decision in the 2017 election petition.
Kenya is highly unusual in that some very detailed provisions of the election law are contained in the Constitution, and meaning if there is a clash between the Constitution and any other subsidiary law – for example – the elections regulations, the Constitution prevails. Specifically, Article 138 of the Constitution contains detailed rules on how elections must be conducted and when. It also has a provision that if only one candidate is nominated for the presidency, he or she can be sworn in as president.
But, because of the way the Supreme Court interpreted Article 138 in 2013, the June nominations for the 2017 polls are still valid for an October 26 election, which means that Uhuru Kenyatta cannot be automatically announced the winner. He is technically not running uncontested and a fresh election has to happen. The question for the IEBC is when this new election happens.
Secondly, the 2013 Supreme Court decision also held that if one candidate withdraws from a fresh election triggered by an invalidated petition – as is the current case – then the entire clock starts over and all candidates must seek fresh nominations. The initial 60-day deadline triggered by the September 1 decision is suspended and the rerun of the election goes back to the calendar set out in the elections act and the election regulations. This process also opens the door for other candidates who did not contest the August 8 election or who were excluded by virtue of conceding the invalidated poll. Basically, under this law, Kenya’s election calendar starts from scratch because of Odinga’s withdrawal.
Representatives of the ruling Jubilee coalition argue that Regulation 52 of the Kenya General Elections means that Odinga’s withdrawal is invalid. That regulation says that a candidate has to withdraw their nomination within three days of submitting it. Under the 2013 decision, candidates participate in a rerun on the basis nomination certificates they already held. Jubilee is arguing that for Odinga’s withdrawal to be valid, he would have had to submit it in June of this year and they want the October 26 election to go ahead with Odinga’s name on the ballot, even if he does not contest.
But this argument is undercut by a simple principle of legal interpretation on the hierarchy of laws. The election regulations are statutes and if there is a clash between a statute and a Supreme Court decision – particularly on the interpretation of the Constitution – the Supreme Court decision holds. In this case, if there is a clash on what fresh nomination means, the IEBC should be guided by the Constitution and the 2013 decision, as well as any other existing Supreme Court jurisprudence – not the regulations. And the 2013 Supreme Court decision clearly states that if a candidate withdraws from a fresh election after an invalidated election, then all parties return to the process of nomination.
Some lawyers are arguing that because the Supreme Court provided an interpretation of article 138 in response to a request from an amicus curiae brief from the attorney general, rather than in response to a question from a petitioner, then paragraph 290 isn’t binding judicial precedent. Basically, they argue that court was giving an opinion “by the way” rather than in response to a serious legal question. But prior to the 2017 petition, many of the same lawyers argued the inverse – that the entire decision was binding and that the court should exercise restraint in amending it. The IEBC lawyers will give their own interpretation later today, but ideally, they should seek direction from the Supreme Court.
In effect, the text of the law is that Odinga’s candidacy should cancel the October 26 election and trigger the reopening of nominations for the presidential election. This would give the IEBC more time to prepare and allows for other candidates to join the race.
But this would not go to the heart of some of Odinga’s demands – the “irreducible minimums” – as a precondition for participating in the election. Significantly, because Uhuru Kenyatta remains incumbent under Article 134 of the Constitution, he cannot approve the appointment of new members of statutory commissions like the IEBC. An overhaul of the commission under the current law remains unlikely.
Still, Odinga’s decision does not mean Kenyatta can be automatically sworn in as president – the invalidation of the August 8 election means that the election did not happen and the process of electioneering still needs to happen on a date prescribed by the IEBC. Kenyatta’s Jubilee coalition maintains that the October 26 poll must go on as scheduled, but given the existing legal framework, a new poll date seems inevitable.
Overall, Kenya is deep into uncharted territory – testing every nook and cranny of the country’s election law. For the long game of democratic consolidation, this is good, as long as the various actors act within the confines of the law. But this situation also points to an overarching problem with that law: Kenya’s election law is simply too complicated. It is unwieldy – unnecessarily so – primarily to accommodate the many paranoias of the country’s leading political figures. One shouldn’t need a law degree, a high-powered printer and an afternoon off in order to understand every single political decision taken during an election cycle.
Thankfully, there is a bench of seven individuals burdened precisely with this task. To avoid throwing more ambiguity at an already convoluted process, the IEBC should seek an advisory opinion from the Supreme Court, clarifying how to read the various pieces of election law together and charting the best way forward.
Nanjala Nyabola is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
NATIONAL SUPER ALLIANCE COALITION STATEMENT ON WITHDRAWAL OF THE CANDIDATURE OF RT.HON. RAILA ODINGA AND H.E STEPHEN KALONZO MUSYOKA IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SCHEDULED FOR 26TH OCTOBER, 2017.
1. On August 8 Kenyans voted in the 6th election since the return to multiparty politics in 1992—the political reform we call the Second Liberation. As is customary voting went smoothly. But when it came to tallying and transmission of results, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It became the first presidential election in Africa to be annulled by the Court, and only the fourth in the world.
2. In the aftermath, the annulment has plunged the country into uncharted waters. That was to be expected. What we would not have expected is that the country’s leadership would be divided by a fundamental tenet of democracy, namely free and fair elections.
3. We at NASA have insisted that the fresh election ordered be held to the standard ordered by the Supreme Court, that is, in strict conformity with the Constitution and written law. We have provided a checklist of what we deem to be the “irreducible minimum” changes required to ensure compliance.
4. The validity of the checklist of the requirements for free and fair elections proposed by NASA has not been disputed by anyone, not by the IEBC, not by Jubilee or other actors and observers. The EU Observer Mission recommendations are in conformity with our ‘irreducible minimum.”
5. Instead, the case for proceeding with the fresh election on 26 October without these changes is being made on the grounds of time constraints. Jubilee and the other proponents of an election without reforms are saying “bora uchaguzi” (any election will do). But we in NASA are calling for “uchaguzi bora” (a credible election).
6. In a constitutional democracy, we should not be debating about a free and fair election, or compliance with court orders, or accountability for breach of public trust. We should have been working together to ensure that we uphold these values as they are not only our national values but are also the foundations of a credible electoral system.
7. Instead the IEBC has stonewalled meaningful deliberations on the necessary reforms to ensure that the elections of 26th October are free and fair. It has wasted valuable time engaging in public relations exercises intended to create the illusion of motion without any movement.
8. We have come to the conclusion that there is no intention on the part of the IEBC to undertake any changes to its operations and personnel to ensure that the “illegalities and irregularities” that led to the invalidation of the 8th August, 2008 do not happen again. All indications are that the election scheduled for 26 October will be worse than the previous one.
9. On its part, the Jubilee administration’s proposed amendment to the election laws demonstrates that it has no intention of competition on a level playing field. The only election Jubilee administration is interested in is one that it must win, even unlawfully.
10. Both Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto have gloated that they have the numbers in parliament to amend even the Constitution. The Jubilee Vice-Chairman is on record stating that Kenya requires a benevolent dictator and proceeded to exhort Uhuru Kenyatta to exercise dictatorial powers. These utterances provide the motive for the blatant across the board rigging of the August 8 elections— it was to secure the majorities that Jubilee needs to overrun our Constitution. Kenyatta and Ruto are beneficiaries, believers and defenders of the old order. They intend to overthrow our new constitutional order and re-install the old order. The over 300 elections petitions filed, majority against Jubilee are evidence that this claimed majority is fraudulent.
11. We wish to reiterate what we have stated in the past that we will not allow autocracy back into Kenya. It is unfortunate that international actors who have supported Kenyans in their quest for democracy and good governance are now on the side of appeasing dictatorship in the mistaken belief that it will maintain stability.
12. We shall not allow anything to dampen our morale. We won the battle for multiparty democracy. We won the battle for a new Constitution. We are going to win the battle for a free and fair election.
13. After deliberating on our position in respect of the upcoming election, considering the interests of the people of Kenya, the region and the world at large, we believe that all will be best served by NASA vacating its presidential candidature in the election scheduled for 26 October 2017.
14. We have based our decision on the foregoing, and the following constitutional and legal basis.
15. SUPREME COURT DECISION IN THE ELECTION PETITION No. 1 of 2017 RAILA ODINGA vs IEBC and others
16. In arriving at its decision to nullify the presidential election held on August 8 2017, the Supreme Court made the following findings of illegalities and irregularities based on which the National Super Alliance (NASA) Coalition proposed a 12 point irreducible minimum required to make the fresh election fully compliant with the Supreme Court decision;
17. Statutory Forms
18. On the matter of statutory forms used in the elections, the court found that contrary to the assertion by the Commission that it had fully complied with the Constitution and the law; and, the position taken by the Commission (through the Affidavit of Immaculate Kassait) that the Commission had developed standards for its electoral goods prior to their procurement including specific security features for each ballot paper and statutory form in order to prevent duplication, misuse, piracy, fraud, counterfeiting and to improve controls, and that the statutory forms and ballot papers had the features which included: guilloche patterns, anti-copy patterns, watermarks, micro text, tapered serialization, invisible UV Printing, polling station data personalization, self-carbonating element and barcodes, different colour for each ballot paper and that the forms were in a standard form or format, the scrutiny supervised by the Registrar of the Supreme Court and authenticated by the agents of all the parties to the case to the case had revealed that: –
a) The Commission declared Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta the President elect before it received results from 11,883 polling stations and 17 Constituencies;
b) Form 34C used to declare Uhuru Kenyatta President elect, was not original but a photocopy; and, that no explanation was given as to the whereabouts of the original form. And, that the form, as crucial as it is, bore neither a watermark nor serial number;
c) Forms 34B used to declare Uhuru Kenyatta president elect were of dubious authenticity; and, that some of the forms were photocopies, carbon copies or were not signed by the Returning Officers. Out of 291 Forms 34B, 56 did not have watermark feature, 31 did not bear serial numbers, 5 were not signed at all, were not in a standard form or format, among other discrepancies;
d) Out of a random sample of 4,299 Forms 34As examined, a total of 189 forms had not been filled in the “hand-over” section, 287 forms had not been filled in the “take-over” section, 481 forms were carbon copies, 11 forms had no water mark; and, that considering the sample size, it is apparent that the discrepancies were widespread.
e) The forms were not in a standard form or format. The Supreme Court ended its examination of this part of the judgment by raising the following question: “Who introduced these forms into the system?”
19. Application of Technology
20. On the matter of application of technology, the Supreme Court found and held that:
a) The Commission failed to electronically transmit the statutory Forms 34As and 34Bs as required by section 39(1C) of the Elections Act;
b) The Court accepted the Petitioner’s claims that the Commission’s IT system was infiltrated and compromised and the data therein interfered with or IEBC officials themselves interfered with the data or simply refused to accept that it had bungled the whole transmission system and were unable to verify the data; this being the only logical reason the interlocutory orders for audit and access thereto were frustrated by the Commission;
c) While among the 11,000 polling stations the Commission claimed were off the 3G and 4G ranges were in: Bomet, Bungoma, Busia, Homa Bay, Kajiado, Kericho, Kiambu, Kisumu, Kisii, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Siaya and Vihiga Counties, most parts of these counties have fairly good road network and infrastructure that it would take a short time for the Presiding Officers to travel to vantage points from where they would electronically transmit the results.
d) The Commission had known the areas where network is weak or totally lacking beforehand and should have made provision for alternative transmission. In one of its press briefings before the elections, the Commission had assured the country that it had carefully considered every conceivable eventuality regarding the issue of electronic transmission of the presidential election results and categorically stated that technology was not going to fail. The Commission had engaged three internet service providers to deal with any network challenges.
e) The Commission had contumaciously disobeyed the order of scrutiny which was a golden opportunity for the Commission to place before court evidence to debunk the Petitioner’s claims of hacking; by denying access to two critical areas of their servers; its logs which would have proved or disproved the Petitioner’s claim of hacking into the system and altering the presidential election results and its servers with Forms 34As and 34B electronically transmitted from polling stations and Constituency Tallying Centres.
f) If the Commission had nothing to hide, even before the order was made, it would have itself readily provided access to its ICT logs and servers to disprove the petitioner’s claims.
21. These blatant illegalities and irregularities were not without motive. It is inconceivable that election body would falsify 80 out of 290 constituency tallies (27.5%) for the sake of it. The meaning of the Supreme Court decision is that the so called numbers claimed by Uhuru Kenyatta are fraudulent. The election was not shambolic. It was rigged for Uhuru Kenyatta. Uhuru Kenyatta lost the election. It stand to reason that we won it.
22. The IEBC has refused, neglected or failed to put in place mechanisms to correct these illegalities and irregularities. We deem that the fresh election ordered by the Supreme Court cannot therefore be held. Allowing the candidature of Raila Amolo Odinga and Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka to lend credence to the election now scheduled is to participate in an illegality.
23. II. BAD FAITH
(A) The IEBC
(i) For over five weeks, the commission has engaged us in a ping pong game well knowing they had no intention to streamline the electoral system to accord with the constitution and electoral laws.
(ii) It is now clear that the same criminal enterprise that perpetuated the fraud in the August election is firmly in charge of the Commission and setting up even more lethal mechanisms to defraud the Kenyan voter.
(iii) The conservative wing of the IEBC have now firmly crystalized their stranglehold of the operations of the Commission with every decision of the chairman being countermanded and with the proposed amendments to the electoral laws to dilute the powers, authority and standing of the chairperson of the Commission as the Returning officer of the Presidential elections.
(iv) This is coupled with the retention of the same service providers that were complicit in the worst electoral fraud ever witnessed in modern times including Safran/OT Morpho, Al Ghurair etc.
(v) The Commission CEO who was the coup plotter in chief and his litany of senior secretariat staff continue to dominate the operations of the commission and stifle any attempt to initiate reforms at the commission.
(vi) It is now evident that jubilee is firmly in charge of IEBC through four commissioners who have set out to implement the jubilee agenda within the commission.
(B) Jubilee Administration
(i) The ill-conceived amendments to election laws are not only unconstitutional but go against international best practice that in the middle of an elections contest one cannot change the rules and put in place rules that seek to favour him. Moreover, these profound changes to the electoral architecture are being pushed through without the broad based consultations as required by the Constitution.
(ii) Furthermore, it is clear that the amendments are intended to legalize and regularize the illegalities that led to the invalidation of the August 8 election. It stands to reason that the motive for these amendments is to use the same tactics to rig the scheduled election.
(iii) The State has in the period intervening the nullification of 8 August presidential election, gazettement of fresh and pending the 26 October fresh elections, withdrawn security to the NASA Presidential and deputy Presidential candidate. This has made it untenable for the candidates to campaign freely without fear of being harmed. The State has done this well aware that under Article 138 (8) (b) a presidential election would be cancelled if a presidential candidate or his deputy dies.
VACATING THE ELECTION THE ONLY ROUTE TO A FREE FAIR AND CREDIBLE ELECTION WAY
24. The IEBC published the gazette notice declaring the fresh dates for the Presidential elections with Rt. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga and Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta based on the Supreme Court decision of 2013 on a question brought for direction by Attorney General who is the Chief Government legal advisor. In paragraph 289 and 290, the Supreme Court found as follows:
25. 289… It is clear that a fresh election under Article 140(3) is triggered by the invalidation of the election of the declared President-elect, by the Supreme Court, following a successful petition against such election. Since such a fresh election is built on the foundations of the invalidated election, it can, in our opinion, only involve candidates who participated in the original election. In that case, there will be no basis for a fresh nomination of candidates for the resultant electoral contest.
26. 290. Suppose, however, that the candidates, or a candidate who took part in the original election, dies or abandons the electoral quest before the scheduled date: then the provisions of Article 138(1) (b) would become applicable, with fresh nominations ensuing.”
27. As per a correction issued on 6 May 2013, the Supreme clarified that the relevant article is above is 138 (8) (b) which deals with cancellation of a presidential election in the event of the death of the president or the deputy on or before scheduled date. The Supreme Court finding expanded this clause to include when a candidate withdraws from the presidential election.
28. The implication of this provision is that upon our withdrawal, the election scheduled for the 26 October stands cancelled.
29. Our withdrawal from the election requires the IEBC to cancel the election and to conduct fresh nominations. The procedure for nomination of presidential candidates is provided for in the Elections Act 2011, Section 13 (1) which states:
30. “A political party shall nominate its candidates for an election under this act at least ninety days before a general election under this Act in accordance with its constitution rules.”
31. It is clear that this provision gives adequate time to undertake the reforms necessary to conduct an election that is in strict conformity with the Constitution, the relevant laws and the Constitution.
32. This being the case, it is our conviction that our withdrawal is in the best interest of the country and a win-win for everyone.
The mention of Mungiki sends shivers down any spine that knows how heartless this dreaded sect is. A criminal gang used in cold blood murders, robberies and all the criminal activities you can think of. Ross Kemp, One of the world’s most courageous investigative journalists flew down to Kenya to follow up on Mungiki, he admitted to this group is one of the most ruthless gangs in the world he has had encounters with.
During the 2008 PEV, 1200+ were killed majority by police and tribal cleansing in Naivasha. Members of the Mungiki Sect were suspected to have been used in the ritual killings that targeted members of communities that cites against Kibaki from the Kikuyu Community, Mungiki identifies themselves as the soldiers of the community. President Uhuru would be then indicted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for financing this terror group that killed hundreds. Known for being extra brutal, their executions were marked with chopping off body parts.
I remember during the PEV period I was staying on Kisumu and women transported in police escort from Nairobi on fleeing after Mungiki attacks arrived terrified and relieved at the same time. One woman held the attention of many when she arrived with a human body wrapped in a green plastic bag, it was her husband’s who had been killed by the Mungiki and head chopped off. She has salvaged the head only to go and bury. We’ve heard of horror stories how chopped off heads were used to block roads, blunt objects used to forcefully circumcise perceived enemies. State protection was allegedly granted to the dreaded sect and they even had privileges of police uniform for camouflage. However, Uhuru would later be acquitted by the ICC and matter out to rest.
Kibaki’s government under Minister Michuki did a clean sweep on Mungiki when they became a menace and hundreds were killed without secrecy and apology. Sect leaders Maina Njenga, Ndwiga Waruinge and other surviving sect members would, later on, abandon the group and converted to the church. Whether this was strategical or genuine nobody really knows. However what we know is Mungiki exited the stage, went away from the limelight.
We’ve lived through the years without mention not fear of Mungiki, we’ve instead had struggling criminal gangs in the city like Gaza primarily made of malnourished, drugs consumed and brainwashed teenagers terrorize the residents. They’ve been equally met with police brutality and swept clean given unrelenting efforts by ‘Hessy’ a pseudo name for a killer cop who never forgive.
File photo of Mungiki sect members during oath taking.
Back to the story of the day. While Kenya is preparing for fresh election after a stolen one was busted by the Supreme Court, different strategies are being used by different parties to capture attention and affection from their fanbase and basically whip up emotions. Days back supposed Nairobi Business Community held a press conference to protest against NASA planned anti-IEBC demos in the City to force incriminated officials out of office before the election. Having watched the seven-minute ‘Presser’ i made key observation that pointed at a sinister motive; instilling fear! The alleged businessmen mentioned business only once and the entire statement was political full with threats, threats and more threats.
It’s not easy to see this well-orchestrated scheme that’s why Kenya Insights is always here to give you that second look. If you’ve noticed, Jubilee has been on a legitimacy convincing spree a campaign aimed at affirming their supporters that Uhuru is fully in power even though in reality, the constitution limits his powers but that’s part of the strategy. Jubilee will sell their supporters ice cream of they were Eskimos and they’ll still take it.
The press conference starts with full GEMA rituals signaling who are targeted in the messaging, the GEMA community. They go ahead to give a statement that reads like a terror movie, they speak with so much authority you’d think it was Uhuru speaking but again this is not a brainer. The spokesman says “Uhuru will remain the president until he’s sworn in again” he goes ahead to repeat that line. Here the message is simple, kill the spirits of the opposition still holding hopes of Canaan. Well calculated speech delivery.
The statement goes to further state how they’ll protect the vote and Uhuru presidency. Jubilee supporters, by the way, are fully convinced the court stole their victory without paying attention to the court’s verdict that didn’t challenge the numbers Uhuru got but the conformity and noncompliance to the constitution by the IEBC but hey not any amount of sense can change an already made up mind so no need of going deeper.
If interest, however, is the clever use of dreadlocked, stone-faced, men in the presser. If you noticed, they’re strategically placed in the center for full camera capture and at no point are they captured smiling, they wore that no-nonsense face the end. The Hidden message in this thing is Mungiki factor. See, the sect initially was characterized with long untidy dreadlocks and snorting some drug, if you look keenly you’ll notice in the background they’re snorting or pretending to be.
Members of Mungiki sect wielding machetes
To complement Uhuru’s legitimacy and Jubilee power control I think whoever crafted this wanted to assure the supporters particularly the GEMA that their ‘soldiers’ are fully on board to supplement the State power just in case. But this thing is ridiculous staging because Mungiki members dumped the dreadlocks to camouflage and in fact, most of them are in suits and in big offices nowadays.
In my own thoughts, I think there’s a well laid out plan to cause voter apathy especially in the opposition areas including voter displacement. Those informal sectors will buy into this and are often most targeted in the fear-mongering strategies. Remember in the run-up to 8/8 there was a plastic war atmosphere created that never was. Jubilee is strategically putting NASA on the receiving end, keeping them agitated and involved in rebuttals as Jubilee is busy campaigning. You’ll see unrealistic legislations being pushed that will have NASA complaining, meanwhile, Jubilee will be campaigning.
I highly suspect that towards the 26th election date Jubilee will give in and allow NASA’s irreducible minimums and by then they’d have fully configured the system to beat NASA before the polling station opens. Cambridge Analytica, the company advising Kenyatta specializes on manipulating gullible minds and operates best in a divided society, Kenya is a fertile ground given sharp ethnic divisions that have made their work even easier. Fear is their trading commodity and that’s why you’ll notice Every time we move closer to the election date, fear of violence increases. It is not surprising to the watchful eyes. This time Mungiki seems to be an asset in their push. Mungiki narrative is brought back to whip up emotions, fear to opposition and ‘confidence’ to Jubilee. If it was genuine, you wouldn’t see them in camera but hit unexpectedly like in 2008. This is all but a strategy to create a notion. Cambridge are experts at manufacturing hot air but again this is Kenya.
Jubilee like any other contender is in this election to win and if they went wrong the last time, they can’t afford to lose twice and that’s why they’ll they’ll everything possible including dumping the constitution to install a totalitarian government. NASA an opponent can’t sit back as a crybaby but study their opponents, secretly plan their attack strategy and stop Jubilee. What took down the communists in Divided Germany was the perception and realization by common folk that the communists were not as powerful as they projected themselves. Jubilee projects itself as insurmountable to experience defeat at the ballot. In truth, they are stiffly scared of a transparent process, in truth they neither have numbers nor have the backing of Kenyans. It’s time the common folk knows this, in the villages and hamlets.
And lemme be extravagant with the truth, if Jubilee was confident of a clean sweep, a clean win in a clean election and had the imaginary numbers I promise you wouldn’t be seeing the twerking going around. It would be zero side shows, combined efforts to ensure flawless electoral process but since lies are more convincing they’ve resorted to clutching on every sideshow available. We all know who can’t win in a clean fair election and who can win but just don’t want to say it. Anyway, if this didn’t open your eyes one lid, you can go back to consuming brainwashing lies. I’m out until the next.
Watch the ‘Nairobi Business Community’ presser below.
Hillary Clinton said she wouldn’t rule out challenging the legitimacy of the 2016 presidential election if Russian interference turned out to be deeper than previously thought.
“No, I wouldn’t rule it out,” she said in an interview with NPR published Monday. In an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross about her new memoir, What Happened, Clinton acknowledges that such a challenge would be unprecedented and that “I just don’t think we have a mechanism” for it. The defeated Democratic nominee stressed, however, that she does not believe there is a means to officially challenge the election’s outcome.
Clinton has repeatedly blamed Russia’s efforts to intervene in last year’s election for her loss to Donald Trump, but her latest comments reflect the depth of her frustration with the Kremlin’s efforts.
They come as special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the election-meddling campaign that U.S intelligence agencies say was done to benefit Trump, and whether any of the president’s associates colluded with Moscow.
Below is part of the interview:
NPR: You told Susan Page at USA Today that you believe that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. What leads you to believe that?
HILLARY: I was careful with that. I said we know they communicated. We know they tried to hide all of the communications — both phone calls and meetings. We know that they took advantage of very well-timed Russian activities. We know that they had a very clear line of communication that was set up, that, in fact, after the election, the Trump people wanted to continue — and not in the sight of our intelligence providers.
We know that the intelligence community of our country — people who I’ve worked with, people who I have every bit of confidence in — have concluded that this came from the top of the Kremlin and was intended to help Trump.
We know there were all these financial entanglements. We’re learning more all the time. There’s just communication, there’s financial, there’s a lot of breadcrumbs and trails that are now being investigated. It’s up to the special counsel, the Congress to determine what the facts are, but there’s just a lot of smoke there.
NPR: You’ve basically said that you thought the Comey comments about the email investigation is what tipped the election.
HILLARY: Yeah.
NPR: And ultimately caused you to lose. But you’ve also said the Russian bots and Facebook pages and affinity groups and the hacking all contributed to your loss.
HILLARY: Yes. I believe that.
(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.
NPR: Democrats have said that they think there was Russian interference in the election, but that they’re not challenging the results of the election. As more and more information comes out about the depth of Russia’s interference in the election, do you think, at some point, that it would be legitimate to challenge the legitimacy of the election?
HILLARY: I don’t know if there’s any legal constitutional way to do that. I think you can raise questions. In fact, I think part of the reason Trump behaves the way he behaves is that he is a walking example of projection. Whatever he’s doing and whatever he thinks is happening he will accuse somebody else of. And there are examples during the campaign when he did just that, like when he called publicly on Russia to hack my personal emails.
He knew they were trying to do whatever they could to discredit me with emails, so there’s obviously a trail there, but I don’t know that in our system we have any means of doing that, but I just wanted to add to the point you made. There’s no doubt they influenced the election: We now know more about how they did that. Let me just put it this way, if I had lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College and in my first day as president, the intelligence community came to me and said, “The Russians influenced the election,” I would’ve never stood for it. Even though it might’ve advantaged me, I would’ve said, “We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.” I would’ve set up an independent commission with subpoena power and everything else.
NPR: I want to get back to the question, would you completely rule out questioning the legitimacy of this election if we learn that the Russian interference in the election is even deeper than we know now?
HILLARY: No. I would not. I would say it is.
NPR: You’re not going to rule it out.
HILLARY: No, I wouldn’t rule it out.
NPR: So what are the means, like, this is totally unprecedented in every way —It is. What would be the means to challenge it, if you thought it should be challenged?
HILLARY: Basically I don’t believe there are. There are scholars, academics, who have arguments that it would be, but I don’t think they’re on strong ground. But people are making those arguments. I just don’t think we have a mechanism. You know, the Kenya election was just overturned and really what’s interesting about that — and I hope somebody writes about it, Terry — the Kenyan election was also a project of Cambridge Analytica, the data company owned by the Mercer family that was instrumental in the Brexit vote.
There’s now an investigation going on in the U.K., because of the use of data and the weaponization of information. They were involved in the Trump campaign after he got the nomination, and I think that part of what happened is Mercer said to Trump, “We’ll help you, but you have to take Bannon as your campaign chief. You’ve got to take Kellyanne Conway and these other people who are basically Mercer protégés.”
And so we know that there was this connection. So what happened in Kenya, which I’m only beginning to delve into, is that the Supreme Court there said there are so many really unanswered and problematic questions, we’re going to throw the election out and redo it. We have no such provision in our country. And usually, we don’t need it.
Now, I do believe we should abolish the Electoral College, because I was sitting listening to a report on the French election and the French political analyst said, “You know in our country the person with the most votes wins, unlike in yours.” And I think that’s an anachronism. I’ve said that since 2000.
Hillary Clinton with Raila Odinga when she last visited the country.
John Kerry, who just like Hillary is a former Secretary of States, in a New York Times article in which he was forced to defend himself and deny he ever said the 8 August election was free and fair, criticized Uhuru for his attacks on the Supreme Court:
He wrote – “Initially, President Kenyatta spoke about respecting the court’s decision, but sadly, in subsequent statements, he attacked the judges as “crooks” and vowed to “fix” the court if re-elected.”
The US has reached out to President Uhuru Kenyatta and his rival Raila Odinga to resolve sticky issues around the October 17 repeat elections.
A top official in President Donald Trump’s administration said “all eyes were on Kenya” as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) invited President Kenyatta and Mr. Odinga to a make-or-break meeting over the elections.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US government’s Bureau of African Affairs Donald Yamamoto said the US had already reached out to top political leaders in the country and informed them that the world is watching.
Besides regular statements made by the US ambassador to Kenya, Mr. Robert Godec, concerning the coming election, this is probably the first time that a senior government official in the Donald Trump-led government has spoken publicly about it.
Having been the longest-serving Kenyan VP, and a close friend of the then President Moi, Prof. George Saitoti had been secretly gunning for the presidency. He had thought his loyalty to the totalitarian leader had earned him the consideration and that he would easily endorse him as Moi went to retirement. The shock on him, Moi planned a marriage with Raila and had Uhuru Kenyatta in his mind as his preferred heir to the throne.
The reality would hit Saitoti later in at Kasarani where the disappointed and furious VP when he realised his dreams had been shattered, took to the microphone at the Kasarani and made his now most famous political speech: “I know there are many of you who wanted me to contest, is that not so?” he asked the delegates. “There come (sic) a time when the nation is more important than an individual…but one day I will be proved right.”
By working outside the Rift Valley elite, Prof Saitoti naively thought he could marshal support and that, as the vice-president, his appointment to a senior party position was a given. What Prof Saitoti did not know, however, was that his fall had been choreographed at State House by some key Rift Valley elite and erstwhile associates.
Another person who was to fall with him was then Kanu Secretary-General Joseph Kamotho, whose position was to be taken by Mr. Odinga. Neither got the wind of what lay ahead. It was a few months to the Kanu presidential nominations and Raila thought this would be his crowning moment if he combined the Kanu block of votes with the ones in Nyanza — a dangerous gamble. Pundits say the problem with Saitoti was that he had very few confidantes. That day, he was horrified to find out that his name was not in the line-up.
He walked over to Mr. Moi and, according to multiple sources, complained loudly about it. It was the first time that many of his friends had seen him complain bitterly. But Moi dismissed him with: “Kimya (shut up!) Professor, if your name is not on the list, it is not there.” Saitoti left a hurt man and felt betrayed by the person (Moi) and people (presumed friends) he least expected.
Politics and betrayal go in hand as they say it is nothing personal just business. When Raila and Kibaki signed a memorandum of understanding for Kibaki to serve only one term and leave for Raila, we all bought it until Kibaki threw his ‘friend’ under the bus and ran for a second term. Closer is the shortest deal in political history when Uhuru endorsed Mudavadi for the presidency only to withdraw it hours later.
With these realities that can’t be ignored, the rather glamorous marriage between Uhuru and Ruto couldn’t be as glittering after all. Ruto’s Friends Fear Uhuru Stab In The Back. However, this is not something new, many of Central politicians have been low-key speaking about it, Ex-Governor of Kiambu even publicly said Kikuyus will reconsider their support to Ruto after 2017.
However, it is not like Samoei one of the Machiavellian politicians of these times is completely aware of silent talks and betrayal schemes. One of his senior aides once told me, “Ruto is not naive he knows all these you’re telling me about and has an exit plan God forbid should it get there.”
UhuRuto marriage was crafted on circumstances as The two found themselves hinged at The ICC Fulcrum, it has been referred to as The marriage of convenience. The return of Peter Munya to Jubilee has unsettled Rift Valley. Uasin Gishu leaders meeting in a posh hotel yesterday see the hand of Gideon Moi. Some feel that a betrayal would be fate. Now that Ruto tried to impose Buzeki as Governor. Political observers say there’s mounting pressure on Uhuru to win the fresh elections. Win or win.
Yet money is low in the camp. And those funding the rerun have conditions attached to their generosity. Whispers in Central Kenya ask, “Who’s next to come 2022?” Those who aim to ascend to power wish to cut all links with Gatundu and Moses Kuria. “The man never knows when to shut up! He shall sink alone,” they say. Mursik has a sour taste.
In the Rift, there’s that tired and run-down feeling. The bread basket of Kenya wants to plough their fields. Continue with the construction of tall buildings in their jewel, Eldoret. They would if
Kenya was not so caught up in the election fever. Ruto’s confidantes Murkomen and Duale feel they have sacrificed much to be cut off now.
By now many must have noticed the public display of anger by the President has gone down, instead, Ruto is a walking inferno. According to heavy political intelligence captured by Kenya Insights, Uhuru is continuously growing tired of fights with Raila and considering getting into a coalition government with him if that’s what it will take for him to maintain the presidency. During the Supreme Court proceedings, Uhuru through his lawyer told the court he was willing to form a nusu mkate or an inclusive government with Raila. But Ruto can’t hear any of that as he knows such a situation would share off the limelight from him just when he needs it most ahead of 2022.
“These people refused to open the IEBC servers for it would expose the rot it holds and in line evaporate the legitimacy of Uhuru, they sacrificed the presidency now you think sacrificing few seats for Raila to calm down would be too much?” One of my sources placed deep in Jubilee posed to me.
Recently, the President bragged about having majority numbers in both houses; Parliament and Senate enough to martial for changes in the constitution. Amongst key considerations is cutting off the term limits from two to lifetime for the presidency. This brought fear and excitement to Ruto at the same time, excitement because it would mean after 2022, he could rule as long as he lives and fears that his partners would take advantage and short change him to a political oblivion.
DP Ruto’s Karen home has been a hub of late night meeting with his loyalists mostly from the Rift Valley strategizing on the next move. Ruto we learn has vowed to never allow Jubilee / Raila partnership. It is through the DP’s intervention that IEBC CEO, Ezra Chiloba was reinstated and even charged to oversee the August election. The CEO who is said to be largely responsible for bungling the election has already been endorsed by Jubilee to oversee election and NASA rejecting saying there won’t be an election until he exists. One doesn’t want to think hard on the insistence to retain Chiloba by Ruto.
Ruto and a section of his loyalists in a happy mood after the meeting with IEBC officials at the Anniversary Towers in Nairobi.
The DP we learn is going out of his limits to ensure they win the election even though Uhuru has lost confidence, he is on record sensing defeat that they’ll impeach President Odinga. Perhaps the clearest indicator of the rift in Jubilee played out recently in public without many noticing it. When Jubilee paid a visit the IEBC, he was only accompanied by his loyalists from Rift Valley and very few from the other side. This was a simple hint of something unusual going on. It is difficult to read any misunderstanding between the two principals given their public display of romance.
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice. How tough is tough. The people in Sugoi and Kapsabet’s kiosks are wondering. “Kwani nini imefanyikia Samoei Ruto?” “Alikuwa anapigania katiba na haki. Sasa anasema katiba ni mbaya! Maraga ni mbaya!”
This sentiment and the alternative of a Moi and Munya presidency come 2022 has a few old men
smiling.
The young leaders around Ruto feel threatened. They should be. Gideon Moi has the image of a fair man. He is urbane, knows the constitution and loves law and order. Favourable attitudes which arouse admiration in villages and cities. From Kabartonjo to Kericho. Others fear a repeat of history. If it were not for James Kanyotu, George Kariithi and Attorney General Charles Njonjo: Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi would never have been president. And DP
Ruto has few powerful friends.
Oil rises above the water. To DP Ruto’s credit, he has risen fast. Too fast. With many pushed aside and stepped on. An I-can-do-all-things attitude. He forgets that you need people. The loyal ones around him see the faint writing on the wall of history. DP Ruto cannot see it at all. They know the Jubilee Treaty is a monstrous lie. Failing in strength and health every day we near 2022.
A dangerous stewardship. Kipchumba Murkomen is the man on the hot seat. Tasked by Rift Valley’s leaders to guide the ship, MV Samoei, come 2022 into State House. In reference to Gideon Moi, they warn, “A man may be down but he’s never out.”
If we’re to borrow a leaf from the history then we can say the fire is just getting started. Power is not given but taken, with all factors constant, Ruto must stretch beyond his limits if he aims to capture power. Knowing the man in question, I can tell this battle is just getting started. You ever stayed in a relationship that is completely off and hanging on a string? Both of you having lost the mojo but just hold on to it for the admirals from your friends? You ever chewed a gun till it lost taste but you keep on going just to keep your mouth busy? Well, Ruto and Uhuru might not show any signs of mistrust and displeasure in public, in fact, you’ll keep seeing them happily appearing together but keep in mind, behind every smile there’s underlining cause. Time will finish this story.
NASA Presidential candidate Raila Odinga, as reiterated that NASA won’t participate in the upcoming elections should IEBC maintain the same team that bungled the election. While addressing his supporters in Kibra, Raila said he doesn’t have hope I’m the current IEBC set-up to conduct a fair and free election.
This is coming at a time when Jubilee has threatened NASA to go ahead with their election boycott plan and will instead swear in Uhuru as the President. After a series of what now seems like a conspiracy to feign division within IEBC top management, the electoral body held a retreat in Naivasha at the Great Rift Valley Lodge belonging to the Kenyatta’s family over the weekend.
In a mind boggling move, IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba was tasked to oversee the 17th October election. The irony and disgust of this all is the fact that, IEBC has done no change to the body and the same people who mismanaged the nullified elections are once again they poised key players. Ideally, expecting the corrupted officials who’re clearly servants of bigger client in bungling the election, cannot and will not deliver a fair and credible election. Moving a monkey to a new forest doesn’t change the monkey in it.
Kenya spent probably highest amount in Africa or not the world in the election, Sh. 40Billion was spent on an election whose end results has shown no election was ever held. It will be insanity for anyone to think and support the idea of maintaining same fraudulent characters and for a minute trust them to run the show differently.
It doesn’t come as a surprise that Jubilee is yet to be heard it seen to castigate IEBC on their incompetence that eventually led to the cancellation of Uhuru’s presidency. Instead, Jubilee has kept IEBC off the blames instead channeled their bile on the judiciary. Joining the dots, you can’t help but notice the close and friendly relationships Jubilee and IEBC enjoys such that the main culprit has to be shielded. Jubilee has so far endorsed the Chiloba led team to oversee the election. David Ndii in his Saturday Nation column, made a sharp conclusion that “thieves who are cheated by their accomplices cannot take them to court or go around badmouthing them. The only enforcement mechanism that drug cartels and other crime syndicates employ is violence against their own.”
New conditions set by NASA to IEBC failure to which they’ll boycott the election.
1. Forms 34Bs
• All Forms should be preprinted indicating names of polling stations and candidates.
• Returning Officers to physically fill in the Forms and make a formal announcement at the Constituency level. The above process to be done in the presence of agents, media, observers and the public.
• There should be no use of Excel documents in filling results Forms.
• All Forms to be standardized.
2. Printing of Ballot papers and Forms
• Al Ghurair company printed non standardized elections results declaration Forms which were used in the impugned presidential elections.
• Another printer should be contracted to print ballot papers and results declaration Forms in the fresh elections.
3. Election Monitors
• Introduce election monitors selected from a multisectoral group to have a role in signing off for elections materials and results declaration forms at polling stations and the Constituency tallying center.
• Elections Monitors to sign off on the Forms 34As and 34Bs before the results are announced.
4. Returning Officers
• A new slot of returning officers to be appointed for all the 291 constituencies
• Current serving ROs to remain as Constituency Elections Managers and not play any role as Returning Officers in the fresh elections but provide logistical support to the appointed ROs.
• Appointment of ROs should be from a pool provided by political parties of nominees.
• Posting of ROs should be done through open balloting in public to determine constituencies where the officers are to be posted.
5. Results Transmission
• No text messaging in sending elections results
• Only scanned images to be sent through the KIEMS kit to the constituency and national tallying center
• Commission to proactively announce exact number of persons who have voted at 5 pm based on tabulations from KIEMS Kits before the counting starts.
• Elections results to be announced at the Constituency level. Only scanned images to be sent through the KIEMS kits or results transmitted by Presiding Officers and Returning Officers may be tabulated.
Jubilee leaders led by DP Ruto leaving the Anniversary Towers where they held a consultative meeting with IEBC officials. They expressed their confidence in the newly constituted team to deliver a free election.
• National tallying center should not display results before they are verified and announced at the constituency level. No results should be displayed unless political party and candidates’ agents are given full access to all transaction logs and databases.
• National tallying center should only display scanned images of result Forms once publicly announced at the Constituency tallying centers
• Media Houses should proactively cover all results announcements at the respective constituencies and show live feed of the outcome
• Candidates’ agents should be part of receiving teams at the constituency and national tallying centers. Receiving teams to verify all Forms 34As delivered and confirm that accurate entries are made on the Forms 34Bs and sign off before announcement is made.
• Observers should be allowed access to this process.
6. Candidate Agents and tallying center
• Candidates agents should be present at all levels and processes of the elections. these include the deployment and receiving of elections materials.
• Candidates should have IT agents present to oversee the entire IT infrastructure of the Commission and be present or have access at all data centers, where controls are maintained and servers hosted/configured.
7. ICT Infrastructure
• Independent International Experts should be engaged to manage the entire ICT framework of the elections with close supervision of the Candidates agents and the IEBC.
• Results transmission system to be designed on the Oracle platform and overseen by Oracle Consulting. No use of cloud servers in results transmission.
• IBM was contracted to provide end to end security testing of the KIEMS system. IBM to be allowed to provide security and monitoring of users, networks and servers used in results transmission.
• Administrator and root accounts must be disabled on KIEMS servers. All system administrators accessing the servers must use their own accounts.
• IEBC to avail API to be made available to all stakeholders in time and relevant documentation.
• Commission should provide full information on the following;
• Entire ICT infrastructure, list of support partners and their respective Service Level Agreements (SLAS), full disclosure of implementation documentation by each partners.
• Firewall configuration including ports configuration.
• Disclose all database transaction logs including: alert logs, archive/redo logs, audit trail, data files, OS command history, network logs, sql.net logs database vault logs and trace files.
• Physical view and inspection of IEBC servers, portal access to the servers and IP addresses of all 20 servers.
• Full access and copy of all servers and databases it is using.
• Disclose all support partners with SLAs and escalation matrix.
• Disclose firewall configuration including ports configuration.
• Entire enterprise architecture of the landscape.
• GPS coordinates of KIEMS.
• KIEMS sim card numbers for all kits
• Telkom and network structure with all service providers (provide agreements and implementation details.
• Transaction logs of all databases and servers.
8. Polling Stations
• IEBC should provide a list of all polling stations and registered voters per all those polling stations in advance. List should indicate the GPS locations of all polling stations and the network coverage.
A section of the crowd at the NASA rally in Kamukunji Grounds, Kibra, Nairobi.
9. Complicit Elections Personnel
• A scrutiny of the Forms 34Bs from the constituencies showed that 80 constituency Forms were fake and therefore illegal. Officers who were complicit in processing results through these illegal Forms being the respective returning officers and national tallying center officers who allowed the illegal documents to pass as results should not play any role in the fresh electoral process.
• Officers who also facilitated the display of figures purporting them to be results but which at the Supreme Court hearing were disowned by the Commission as mere statistics should equally be barred from participating in the fresh elections.
These officers include;
Date set for Fresh Presidential Elections,17th October is still on weighing balance but polls must be within 60days as stipulated in the Constitution. No need to hurry for a second shambolic electoral process without reforms in all aspects in the Commission.
Realignment in the Electoral Commission.
Before planning or putting anything in place,IEBC should wait for Full Judgement from Supreme Court of Kenya which was to be provided after 21days from judgement day. Everything so far IEBC has set in place should be just back up but 90% should be as per the Court Order. Some will be impossible to accomplish within their stipulated time and would need some quite time which failure to comply to them will be contempt. The Independence of the Commission is Coarse and they must accept to fact,they are on public watch and their acts must be in line with public interest as they are on Second redemption
Provided Chairman Wafula Chebukati appointed 6-Project team to oversee the Fresh Elections is not a big deal when still the old crooked Chiloba’s team are still in office though not active. They will still have greater influence through backdoor. The following moles once out,might water down threats to boycott the polls: CEO Ezra Chiloba,Directors Immanuel Kassait,Commissioner in charge of ICT Prof.Abdi Yakub Guliye,Head of Legal Affairs Praxidis Tororey,Ms Betty Nyabuto and Director of IT John Muhati.
Involve All Stakeholders in Every Undertakings
The Electoral commission thought their new appointees would be appreciated as smart move since it excluded CEO Chiloba,unfortunately it didn’t but instead sparked fresh integrity issues and discrimination from stakeholders. The appointees were no much better from victims of Electoral fraud circus.
1. Marjan Hussein Marjan (Appointed as Project Coordinator) who is the Deputy CEO.Works under instructions from CEO Chiloba who is much affiliated Jubilee Party
2. Dr. Sydney Namulungu (Appointed as Head of Operations) who Served at the IEBC Headquarter as the Training Manager under the Directorate of Voter Registration and Election Operations. As the Training Manager, he worked under Immaculate Kassait. In 2013 he was Team Leader for Jubilee in Central Kenya thereafter the 2013 General Elections, he was moved to Kakamega as the Regional Election Coordinator. In the 2017 General Elections, he worked as the County Returning Officer for Kakamega.
3. Nancy Kariuki (Appointed as Head of Logistics) who Served as the Manager for Voter Registration under the Directorate of Voter Registration and Elections Operations headed by Immaculate Kassait. After the 2013 General Elections, she was moved to Central Region as the Regional Coordinator. In the 2017 General Elections, she was appointed as the County Returning Officer for Mombasa and came to limelight when attempted to frustrate by delaying to present him his Certificate. There were multiple Electoral fraud involved which she tolerated for the benefit of Jubilee Party in the region.
4. Albert Gogo (Appointed as Head of ICT) who has worked as a Constituency Elections Coordinator and Returning Officer in Mombasa whose supervision are under Immaculate Kassait.
5. Bernard Miseti Moseti (Appointed as Head of Training) who is alleged to be Ben Miseti who acted as the Returning Officer for Bungoma still under supervision of Immaculate Kassait.
6. Silas Rotich (Appointed as Head of National Tally Center). The only among the 6 who Jubilee has not rejected which leaves endless question marks over the endorsement. Silas Rotich worked as County Returning Officer for Nakuru County. Previously, Rotich works as a Constituency Elections Coordinator under the Directorate of Voter Registration and Elections Operations.
IEBC CEO Chiloba Must Respond To Chairman Chebukati On Queries Raised In The Memo
“1. First, you issued a Memo to the Commission’s staff dated 1st September, 2017 referenced IEBC/CEO/1/1/09/2017; In the said Memo, you appear to contradict the position adopted by the commission and communicated by the Chairperson on behalf of the Commission via a Press Statement on the 1st of September 2017. Further the Memo also fails to appreciate the grave indictment by the Supreme Court in the above subject petition, with regard to the manner in which the commission conducted the impugned presidential elections. Respond and Explain the basis for your contradiction.
2. The Commission contracted Messer Al Ghurair, to print the Country’s ballot papers and various statutory forms to be used in the Presidential elections; under defined contractual terms and obligations. Respond and Explain what happened to the printed forms that were meant to have various approved security features and names of candidates printed in accordance with the ballot proofs and as verified by the due diligence terms the Commission sent to Dubai.
3. The Commission had contracted Messer MFI to avail printing and scanning machines across the Country, for use in the 8th August 2017 polls. Respond and explain on whether these machines were supplied – fit for purpose – as contracted, and where they were availed and failed to work, explain the failure.
4. The Commission spent about KES 848 Million to purchase satellite phones; the phones were to be distributed to each constituency and county tallying centers. Additionally areas with no network were specifically supplied with these devices, however none of these ever worked. Respond and Explain what occasioned the massive failure in the devices that would have been used in transmitting the results.
5. Mr Paul Mugo and Mr Boniface Wamae – under instruction from the Director, ICT Mr James Muhati, availed a Memo dated 31st August 2017, to the Chairman’s office through your office; which Memo confirmed the creation of a username account and a password in the name of the Chairperson of IEBC – without my knowledge or consent, and subsequently this account was used to undertake over 9,934 transactions. I direct that you take immediate action against these officers and report back by close of business [CoB] today.
6. Respond and explain what went wrong with KIEMS results transmission, where over 10,366 out of 40,883 polling stations sent text results without the accompanying Forms 34A. Noting that these polling stations had 4,636,556 voters registered therein. The failure is contrary to the plenary decision directing that where a presiding officer was unable to transmit the results [text and forms] from their polling station, they were required to move to the constituency tallying center or use the satellite devices where the same was available.
7. Respond and avail an explanation as to why 595 polling stations failed and/or otherwise refused to send any results for the presidential election.
8. Respond and explain why the Commission adopted and used a porous file server system to transmit Forms 34B;in the stead of creating and using a secure IP address; which made it easy for individuals to manage accounts on each other’s behalf – a clear security risk. Further respond and explain why the Commission used the subject server for day to day operations prior to the elections; and also; why the staff in the ICT directorate used passwords different from their IEBC passwords.
9. Some of the KIEMS Kits were assigned Orange and Airtel as their service providers whereas these two [2] operators did not have coverage in those assigned areas; worse still, Safaricom [a contracted operator] had the required coverage for these areas but were not considered. Respond and Explain why mapping out was not undertaken and these issues addressed and/or otherwise mitigated.
Armed officers stay on standby moments before the final results were announced.
10. Additionally respond and explain why the Commission experienced non-validation of individuals/voters after the KIEMS identification, essentially obfuscating the logs on voters cleared per polling station to vote. Respond on how many voters were subsequently allowed to vote by manual identification and why;
11. Further respond and explain why 682 polling stations had an equal number of rejected vis-à-vis the number of registered voters in those polling stations.
12. Lastly, respond and explain why KIEMS GPRS and Geo-fencing features were switched off from the 5th August, 2017.“
After this leaked Memo,Vice Chairperson Consolata Nkatha Maina with his team of 4 Commissioners who have split up as antagonists to Chebukati’s leadership came to disown his actions in defense to CEO Ezra Chiloba.This team led by the Vice Chairperson recently walked away from Chebukati’s meeting who was pressurising them to resign.Neither Chebukati has responded to whether this memo was a propaganda nor Chiloba hence it’s treated as authentic and the recipient must provide answers.
Doing Away With Brown Envelope Journos in Mainstream Media Houses
Mainstream media must establish Parallel Tallying Centre which must function not for Cinderela.Reporters must be deployed in all 290 Tallying Centres countrywide which they get raw manual data to operate their Parallel Tallying Centre.Must restrain from Githeriman like attention while fraud becomes more virulent.
NIS have become Journalists and Journalists have become NIS to spread lies and fake news to frustrate and witch hunt People’s watchmen.Recently KTN news had reported list of Social media accounts being investigated for hate speech mongering,ironically all the four bigwigs;David Ndii,Disembe Dikembe,Cyprian Nyakundi and Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino were not included in the authenticated list from NCIC.David Ndii who was accused don’t even operate in facebook as alleged to have made 5 hate speech posts.It was NIS in the newsroom who made the list to frustrate and send them a warning.
Full Audit Of Servers
If it were financialy possible,it would be better if Fresh new Servers are purchased but it’s only a wish that beggars would ride on.Quoting myself,”IEBC would rather loose the case in the Supreme Court but fail to open servers for scrutiny to cover up the massive electoral fraud”.It happened exactly the way i had predicted,they lost the case but we shouldn’t loose in pushing for cleaning up of the Servers.
SAFRAN the Service providers Contract must be invalidated and contract agreement be awarded to different firm.
National Integrity and Integration Commission(NCIC) Must Stop Being Partisan
When Post Election Violence erupted after Presidential results declaration which favoured Uhuru Kenyatta,over 100 death were reported in Opposition Strongholds but NCIC through its Old Engine Chairman Ole Kaparo in a presser admitted he had not recieved any report over death case up to date.Worsening is a case of 6months old baby Pendo who went into a coma and later died because police brutality,9 year old Moraa,a school girl who was too shot while playing in the balcony during this period were just here says to NCIC.
Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria who inherited the throne from President Uhuru Kenyatta has become the ‘Untouchable Hate speech Monger’.He promised to manhunt over 70,000 people who voted for Opposition Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga,he told his followers to be ready to shed blood as they won’t allow loss in Presidential Elections.If no action is taken and this sentiments are again taken as here say by the Commission then let’s be ready for this country will burn to ashes.
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.
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.
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.
On August 8, millions of Kenyans formed long, orderly lines outside polling stations across the country to vote in presidential and local elections. Kenya is notorious for corruption, and virtually all prior elections had been marred by rigging. This time, however, the US and Kenya’s other donors had invested $24 million in an electronic vote-tallying system designed to prevent interference. When Kenya’s electoral commission announced on August 11 that President Uhuru Kenyatta had won another five-year term with over 54 percent of the vote, observer teams from the African Union, the European Union, and the highly respected US-based Carter Center, led by former Secretary of State John Kerry, commended the electoral process and said they’d seen no evidence of significant fraud. Congratulations poured in from around the world and Donald Trump praised the elections as fair and transparent.
But not everyone was happy. Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition National Super Alliance party, or NASA, declared the election a sham as soon as the results began coming in. On August 18, he submitted a petition asking Kenya’s Supreme Court to annul it and order a re-vote. The petition claims, among other things, that nearly half of all votes cast had been tampered with; that NASA’s agents, who were entitled by law to observe the voting and counting, had been thrown out of polling stations in Kenyatta strongholds; and that secret, unofficial polling stations had transmitted fake votes. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on September 2, but on August 29, the court registrar reported that some 5 million votes, enough to affect the outcome, were not verified.
Signs that something weird was going on emerged well before the election. A month earlier, Kenya’s electoral commission contracted Ghurair, a Dubai publishing firm, to print ballots. Newspaper reports linked the company to Kenyatta’s inner circle, and Kenyan courts ordered the electoral commission to use a different firm. The order was ignored, and the electoral commission issued a single-source contract to Ghurair anyway, citing time pressure. Then the accounting firm KPMG reported that more than a million dead people might still be registered as voters. NASA officials complained that Ghurair could print extra ballots to be used to create pro-Kenyatta ghost votes. Kerry dismissed these concerns, quipping after the election, “The people who voted were alive. I didn’t see any dead people walking around.”
Ten days before the election, the brutally tortured corpse of the electoral commission’s IT manager, Chris Msando, was discovered in some bushes outside Nairobi. CCTV footage shows his car roaming around the city for hours in the middle of the night before he died. Also in the car were two men and a woman, whose dead body was discovered beside Msanado’s, suggesting a “love triangle” explanation. Many Kenyans expressed skepticism. Msando managed the electronic system for transmitting results from polling stations, and he’d been complaining to the police of death threats for weeks. Kenya’s donors, including the EU’s ambassador to Kenya, praised the government for its commitment to investigating the murders, though many Kenyans suspected the police of being involved in them. But when the US and UK offered to help with the investigation, the police declined. Kerry warned the opposition not to politicize the killing.
A week before the election, a team of US and Canadian advisers who had been helping Odinga’s campaign set up a parallel system to verify the vote counting were arrested at gunpoint and deported. Then Odinga’s spokesman fled too, citing death threats. Then the NASA vote-counting office was ransacked. The Carter Center noted in its report that the raid had probably been carried out by Kenyan security personnel.
Election day brought more problems. According to Kenya’s electoral laws, representatives from all political parties are permitted to witness the voting and the counting of ballots in polling stations after polls closed. Each representative then signs a form known as 34A, certifying the count, and receives a carbon copy. The new $24 million system was supposed to enable scans of the 34A forms to be sent to the electoral commission and posted online immediately, so they could be double checked by all parties and the public. But that system broke down at polling stations all across the country, so only the numbers were sent to Nairobi, often not by the new system but by text message. NASA officials pointed out that these numbers could have been changed en route and noted various suspicious findings in the unofficial early returns, including 100 percent voter turnout at some polling stations—with all votes for Kenyatta; a consistent 11 percent spread between Odinga and Kenyatta during the vote counting—a virtual statistical impossibility; and a phenomenon is known as “unvoting,” in which the totals for some candidates actually fell as more votes came in. In his remarks on behalf of the Carter Center, Kerry admitted that there had been some “little aberrations here and there,” but none that “we thus far feel affected the overall integrity of the process.”
Raila Odinga addressing his supporters during the last tally attended by thousands in Uhuru Park.
Electoral commission officials were supposed to deliver their 34A copies to one of 290 constituency-level centers, where the totals would be recorded on forms known as 34Bs. Copies of all 34As and 34Bs were then supposed to be delivered physically to the national tally center in Nairobi, where they were to be put online—if they had not been already. But almost none were actually online on the day Kenyatta was declared the winner.
Shortly before departing Kenya, John Kerry praised the electoral commission for having done an “extraordinary job to ensure that Kenya has a free, fair and credible poll.” He then urged the opposition to “get over it and move on.”
People who have witnessed election fraud in other African countries have told me that it’s normally done by making small changes to large numbers of tallies and this appears to have happened in Kenya, where there were over 40,000 polling stations. After NASA submitted its petition, a team of American IT experts led by University of Michigan Professor of Statistics and Political Science Walter Mebane volunteered to conduct a forensic analysis of the results. Results that have been tampered with show patterns and Mebane’s computer program identified over half a million fraudulent votes in this manner—almost certainly an underestimate of the true number.
According to Mebane, the paper forms provide the true test of the integrity of the election. The Supreme Court’s registrar assembled a team of experts to physically examine the 34A and B forms that the electoral commission claimed to have used to arrive at the final results. According to their analysis, nearly a third of the forms have irregularities: some are blank, some are signed in the same handwriting, some come from polling stations that didn’t officially exist, some show results that differed from the totals on the copies of the form in NASA’s possession and from the totals announced by the electoral commission, and thousands lack official stamps, signatures, and watermarks. When the Supreme Court-appointed team examined the logs of the electoral commission’s server, it found that numerous unauthorized users had entered the system before and after the election, that the electoral commission chairman had uploaded and removed 34A forms, and that some polling center results had been added before the election had actually occurred.
Despite the growing evidence that the election was a fraud, Kenya’s notoriously corrupt judiciary may dismiss the case. When Odinga disputed Kenyatta’s victory after a similarly flawed election in 2013, the justices ruled that the election should stand, even though results from much of the country are not available even now, and probably never will be.
Another rigged election in Africa is not news. But that US election observers were so quick to endorse it is shocking. Perhaps they believed that wrapping the election up quickly would prevent violence. After Kenya’s 2007 election, which most observers have since concluded was rigged against Odinga, some of his supporters went on a looting and killing spree in ruling-party strongholds. Gangs backed by ruling-party officials fought back and the ensuing mayhem left more than a thousand people dead, caused hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, and nearly shut down the economy of much of eastern Africa, which relies on transport from the Kenyan coast. Odinga was not blameless: he was quoted making ethnically charged statements. But it was Kenyatta and his current deputy, William Ruto—who was then in a coalition with Odinga but has since switched sides—who were charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes against humanity for organizing and supporting the violent gangs. (The cases against them collapsed after witnesses were intimidated or died under mysterious circumstances.)
If the observers think urging Odinga to “move on” will avoid a rerun of 2007, they are likely mistaken. The Bush White House’s rush to congratulate Odinga’s rival, Mwai Kibaki, after the rigged 2007 election helped fuel the violence that followed.
A lady mourning as body of relative killed by police swoop in Mathare lays in the background.
A far more troubling possibility is that the US wants Kenyatta to remain in power, at the expense of democracy. Kenya lies in one of the most volatile regions of the world. Its neighbor Somalia has been a war zone for a decade; conflict in South Sudan has sent more than two million refugees scrambling to neighboring countries, including Kenya, since 2013. Two of Kenya’s other neighbors, Uganda and Ethiopia, are ruled by US-backed autocrats who have instigated or worsened these conflicts. Ethiopia’s US-assisted invasion of Somalia in 2006 set off the mayhem there, promoting the rise of the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab. In 2014, Uganda entered the South Sudan civil war on the government’s side. Humanitarian organizations called for an arms embargo, which would have made Uganda’s involvement illegal. The UN Security Council, including Russia and China, seemed open to an embargo, but the Obama did not pursue it.
Kenyatta, a drowsy-looking bon vivant, and the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first post-independence president, is supported by a powerful network of Kenyan politicians and businessmen, mostly of Kikuyu ethnicity, who have been looting the country for decades. He has aligned Kenya with US policy by, for example, deploying Kenyan forces in AMISOM, the US- and UK-supported African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
Odinga, a taciturn, ambitious seventy-two-year-old of Luo ethnicity, whose father was Jomo Kenyatta’s post-independence vice-president and later his rival, has long nursed a grudge against Kenyatta’s Kikuyu elite. He spent ten years in jail for participating in a failed coup against Jomo Kenyatta’s handpicked successor, Daniel Arap Moi, in 1982 and he fought vigorously for Kenya’s progressive 2010 Constitution which weakened Kenya’s formerly all- powerful presidency and made local officials more accountable to their people. Odinga has pledged to deliver a plan to withdraw Kenya’s troops from Somalia in the first ninety days of his presidency. NASA officials point out that the AMISOM deployment has provoked terrorist attacks on a Nairobi shopping mall and a university, killing hundreds and devastating Kenya’s tourist industry. Odinga is also close to South Sudan’s beleaguered opposition and might help force the US-backed government into negotiations. This is something the Obama administration seems not to have wanted, and the Trump administration seems not to either.
When I asked a member of the Carter Center delegation why his team was so confident about Kenyatta’s victory, he sent me a six-page report by a US-funded Kenyan NGO called the Election Observer Group. It describes a “verification” survey of the presidential results from 1,703 randomly selected polling stations around the country. According to the report, the survey predicted the electoral commission’s final results to within 0.3 percentage points for all eight candidates, including very minor ones who’d received only a few thousand votes.
It was obvious at once that something wasn’t right with this report. The NGO’s projected results were suspiciously accurate and the authors neglected to describe their sampling strategy. The sampling strategy is crucial—after all, voter preferences are not randomly spread around the country but clustered, with Kenyatta’s supporters in some regions and Odinga’s in others. A spokesman for the NGO told me that the survey was carefully stratified, but after carrying out a similar “verification” study during Kenya’s 2013 election, the same NGO declined requests to share its methodology until months after the contested vote, and when it did, several polling stations in the planned sample were reportedly missing.
A statistician friend who looked over the report for me put it this way: “Working backwards, from a known… or desired… election outcome, even I would know how to choose 1,700 polling stations to make results work. You would simply toss into the hopper Kikuyu area polling stations or remove Luo stations as needed.” Kikuyus tend to support Kenyatta; Luos, Odinga.
John Kerry and President Uhuru during his past visit in Statehouse
The Carter Center official was sanguine: “This [report] makes it highly unlikely that a large scale systematic manipulation—digital or manual—occurred during tabulation,” he wrote me. “Any significant discrepancies would have been discovered in the parallel count.”
But the study he was touting seemed to me like a piece of fake news—a flood of which had poured into Kenya around the election, virtually all pro-Kenyatta and/or anti-Odinga. Reports that Odinga had killed white farmers and that American think tanks believed Kenyatta would win appeared on newly created, convincing-looking blogs like “Foreign Policy Journal” and on mock-ups resembling Kenya’s largest daily, The Nation. While cooked-up stories about celebrities and UFOs are common in Africa, partisan fake news like this is not.
Days before the election, an official-looking document—that may or may not be genuine—was leaked to an opposition member of parliament. It described plans to deploy “regime friendly” soldiers to two of Nairobi’s largest slums, both packed with Odinga supporters. In case the people rose up after the results were announced, these men were to cut off the water and electricity supplies and block access to the city center.
A few days after the election, an obviously fake “Embassy cable” began circulating on Whatsapp, complete with US government heading and transmission codes. The unsigned author, addressing his or herself to the “Secretary of State,” predicted that if Odinga won the election, his tribesmen would be so happy they’d go on a rampage for months, looting and pillaging and destabilizing eastern Africa. While the predictions in the document are absurd, they reflect what many Kenyans probably think Americans think of them, and seemed designed to demoralize those Kenyans who have long suspected a US hand in the rigging of their elections.
Last spring, Kenyatta’s party hired, for a reported $6 million, the data research firm Cambridge Analytica, which helped elect Donald Trump and sway Britain’s Brexit vote. Cambridge Analytica’s parent company is Strategic Communications Limited, which is now working for the State Department. Articles in Slate and Politico suggest that SCL has in the past engaged in disinformation campaigns to sway elections in developing countries. The company denies this.
The most disturbing article concerning the Kenyan election appeared on the New York Times editorial page two days after the results were announced. Entitled “The Real Suspense in Kenya,” the editorial claimed that election observers had “witnessed no foul play,” even though the Carter Center’s report, in contrast to the observer’s public statements, mentions Msando’s killing, the NASA office raid, and the problems with the transmission of results.
Achieng helplessly watching over her baby Pendo while in a comma at Aga Khan hospital, Kisumu
The editorial also accused Odinga of “fann[ing] the embers of ethnic strife,” when he’d actually urged his supporters to remain calm. NASA considered organizing a nonviolent protest—permitted under Kenyan law—but deemed it too dangerous. There was spontaneous protesting and some sporadic looting in Odinga strongholds after Kenyatta’s victory was announced, but according to human rights groups, there is no evidence that this was organized, or that Odinga or NASA had anything to do with it. As the Times editors should have known, there was election-related violence, but virtually all of it was carried out by government security forces. For days after the results were announced, special police units cracked down mercilessly, killing at least twenty-four people in Odinga strongholds. The police claimed the victims were criminals or inciting violence, but this is doubtful. In the lakeside city of Kisumu, police went house to house, hurling tear gas and beating and shooting people. Some victims were dragged out of bed and killed. At least ten deaths have been so far documented in this city alone, and more than a hundred others were beaten or suffered gunshot wounds. Among the dead are a nine-year-old girl shot by a stray bullet in Nairobi while playing on her balcony and a six-month-old beaten to death, in her own house, while in her mother’s arms. After Kisumu Governor Peter Anyang Nyong’o told reporters that fishermen had discovered five corpses in body bags floating in Lake Victoria, at least one of which had bullet wounds, the police claimed they were all drowning victims.
The Times editorial also failed to mention that reporters covering the police abuses have been beaten and arrested and that two highly respected Kenyan NGOs investigating them were closed down and raided by the police. A similarly misleading editorial appeared in The Washington Post on the day the election results appeared.
The US government has a disturbing history of meddling in the politics of developing countries; during the cold war, it also influenced some of our most prominent editors and journalists to downplay human rights abuses committed by its undemocratic allies. In countries like Kenya, where important US interests are at stake, the onslaught of mass-media distortions, and biased international election observers and Western-backed NGOs, suggest the possibility of a concerted strategy. As the Chinese general Sun Tzu put it in his famous book The Art of War, “To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” But to do that, you need to make him feel he has already lost.
This article originally appeared on the New York Review Magazine
Supreme Court is set to hear fully the petition filed by NASA against the declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner for Presidential Election by IEBC.
NASA principals Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, who are the petitioners in the case, believe the evidence they have is sufficient to prove that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) conducted a shambolic election marred with massive irregularities and rigging, in violation of the Constitution.
They claim that IEBC colluded with President Kenyatta to deny them victory by allowing 14,000 defective returns from polling stations representing over seven million votes.
As a result, the total presidential votes cast exceeded those of other elective positions of Governor, Senators and Members of National Assembly by over 500,000 votes.
“IEBC became a law unto itself in total breach of the people’s will. The presidential election was so badly conducted that it does not matter who won or was declared the winner. The nature of the flaws is that the commission cannot accurately determine the results of each candidate,” they said.
According to the petition drawn by Murumba and Awele Advocates, the leaders argue that IEBC violated principles of a free and fair election, and the rigging happened during voting, counting and tabulation of results. Disrespect for public institutions kills obligation to higher authority
They are also accusing Jubilee of using State resources to campaign. NASA leaders are questioning why rejected votes were deliberately inflated in their strongholds to reduce Raila’s percentage.
They argue that the relay and transmission of results from polling stations to the constituency and National Tallying Centre was compromised with a predetermined decision to ensure Kenyatta maintained the lead.
“The late ICT director Chris Msando had stated that the system would only function when data was accurately matching the Form 34A. This was however manipulated leading to unverified results from 10,000 polling stations representing approximately five million votes,” the lawyers claim.
They accuse IEBC of taking sides during the elections by favouring Jubilee and disregarding a decision of the Court of Appeal that election results declared at the polling stations are final.
According to the petition, IEBC allegedly colluded with Jubilee to eject NASA agents from polling stations in Central and Rift Valley to conceal evidence of rigging.
They maintained that the declared final presidential results were not based on results from polling stations, given the differences captured in Forms 34A and Forms 34B. The petition claims that IEBC used ungazetted and undesignated polling stations and presiding officers in areas considered Jubilee strongholds who in turn submitted invalid returns in favour of President Kenyatta.
“Even at the point of filing the petition, IEBC is still in the process of fraudulently altering and tampering with the Forms 34A. It is not possible to verify the number of forms used in the elections which shows the results announced were unlawful,” the lawyers say.
The petition has also revisited the controversy of rejected votes which stood at 477,195 accounting for 2.6 per cent of the voters cast. They claim this was deliberate to reduce Raila’s total tally. They argue that scrutiny of the rejected votes confirmed that 395,510 votes were unlawfully deducted from Raila and added to President Kenyatta. According to the lawyers, Kenyatta openly intimidated public officers and improperly influenced them to support his re-election which went against election Code of Conduct.
“He contravened the law with impunity using his position as the Head of State. This disadvantaged his competitors and cumulatively affected the conduct, result and outcome of the presidential election thereby making it null, void and unconstitutional,” say the lawyers.
