Scandals galore agency IEBC is yet again on the dwelling zone following latest audit report that has revealed how they paid up to Sh. 50M to an unnamed company to offer transport services for elections materials during the 2013 elections and the astonishing thing according to the auditor general’s report, the company was non-existent until September 12, 2014, when it was formally registered payments yet according to IEBC records were made to the firm in November 2013.
The payment was purportedly to a related company that the IEBC had awarded the tender earlier for the transport services. In a bid to clear off any trails, IEBC agreed to an irregular request through the unreferenced letter dated October 13, 2014, in which the company indicates that payments due to another firm previously contracted by the commission should be paid to it.
The company that was initially contracted for the transport failed its mandates on the initial stages according to the AG Ouko’s report, and they had inked for 27 vehicles to be used in transporting election materials and instead only five could be accounted to have been used. When the Auditor General’s office questioned IEBC on these discrepancies in draft stages of auditing, they gave additional documents for ten more vehicles instead of 22.
Verifying details of the ten vehicles revealed that some had been reported to have been in use in three different locations at the same time, making their use in assigned areas questionable. The report gives the example of vehicle registration number KAJ 482N, which the IEBC had indicated delivered election material in Malindi Region but was found to have been operating in Rongai and Bahati constituencies in the Rift Valley at the same time.
IEBC has been rocked with controversial transactions and scandals with Chickengate being the most open one where Kenyan officials including the Chairman Isaak Hassan(who has since been cleared by mischevious EACC of any involvement in the scam) alongside others like former IEBC CEO James Oswago of having been bribed by a UK printing firm as tip-off for the ballot paper printing tender award. Faced with immense integrity questions denting their credibility, the defiant IEBC team with the rock Kenyan spirit of never giving up positions have finally bowed out and will pave a way for a new team. It will, however, cost Kenya up to Sh.400M to send the commissioners home.
Water CS Eugene Wamalwa who has been causing major ripples in the now hot Nairobi political scene has added more fruits to his captivating bucket following latest endorsement by the Business community from the GEMA union.
Eugene is yet to make it public his candidature, but word on the streets that has caused much distress within the Jubilee camp is that the principals have silently endorsed him to unseat the incumbent. MPs drawn from Kiambu led by Waititu were the first to give Eugene an endorsement then Moses Kuria whom many views as Uhuru’s mouthpiece echoed the sentiments by throwing his support towards Eugene.
In a quick, expected move, Jubilee MPs from Nairobi led by Maina Kamanda rubbished the endorsement saying the Nairobi seat is foreordained for insiders not outsiders like Wamalwa. The definition of the outsider is best known to them since last time I checked Nairobi is a cosmopolitan city and constitution allow us to vie for any seat anywhere in the country, but there’s less to expect from legislators who have zero regards for the law.
My moles telling me the rebellion from the Nairobi MPs was as a result of their prior endorsement of wealthy Dennis Waweru whom I learn is financing them so that the outcry can be justified.
Eugene’s entrance into the Nairobi scene has not only thrown Dennis to the ditches but also Bishop Wanjiru, Sakaja, Sonko both of whom latest polls rank fairly well.
Kenya voting patterns are mostly determined by the tribal card, and that’s why central MPs who know the Kikuyu voting block in Nairobi is huge have been banking on this to field their own. Nairobi County receives the largest budget allocation with up to Sh.12B annually making it lucrative for most hazardous appetite politicians.
The endorsement of Wamalwa by the business community is coming at a time when propaganda orchestrated by Waweru’s Communication Team has been pushing ‘hogwash’ as Wamalwa describes it that he has bowed out of the race and shifting his focus to Trans Nzoia County to unseat Patrick Khaemba and battle it out with Noah Wekesa who is steering committee in the structuring of Jubilee Merger.
It will be interesting to watch how Eugene who is viewed by critics as a naive, spongy, diplomatic politician to hack the politics of Nairobi which requires one to get his hands dirty and putting off the fire from the wreathing Jubilee MPs perturbed by his endorsement from the high house.
As 2017 fast approaches, political landscapes are changing. Nairobi is at the centre of everything political. The gubernatorial seat is attracting many candidates from the Jubilee wing, and so the women rep position, the incumbent Hon. Rachael Shebesh is up for an uphill task to defend her seat.
Latest polls are showing Nairobi, businesswoman, Esther Passaris enjoying a 28% lead, Rachael Shebesh is second with 20 percent, Wangui Ng’ang’a is a distance third with 2 percent followed by new entrant Karen Nyamu who enjoys only 1 percent. Of all the candidates so far, the city lawyer Karen Njeri Nyamu has been doing meet the people during the weekends traversing various slums.
With the incumbent lacking a track record that speaks for itself the new entrants have no policies too other than clinging on peculiar monikers like Toto si Toto, Bae wa Nairobi, Wakili wa Mama na Watoto and taking pictures in slums to identify with the dwellers when they don’t understand needs of the Nairobians. Ms Njeri for instance admitted to having no manifesto as the prepares to clinch the nomination ticket.
With latest trends politics is almost lacking seriousness, the seat that was created through the new constitution to enhance gender balance has not been understood. Even some candidates are not aware that women representatives though majorly representing the interests of women are just like other MPs( Members of Parliament).
Karen Nyamu,, Women Rep aspirant in the slums where she has been doing grassroots campaigns
Ladies who are moderately successful in business and desperate for fame chest thump without proper policies running for the seat. You can not employ every woman at the EPZ (Export Processing Zone), times have changed, we are living in the 21st century. It’s too late to promise people jobs that can barely support their lives. Initiate ideas that can fix problems that people face.
Most of these candidates are people who have access to individuals or cash to facilitate their way to greener pastures. At the centre of political leadership is a relationship, Hillary Clinton once said but many candidates around have no time-tested relationship with the people.
They come at the eleventh hour, hoodwink the people, get elected, forget the people and fill their stomachs. Relationship with the people in this context is not taking desperate photos with poor kids at the slums and jumping over dirty trenches with the poor drainage system.
Nairobi did not see these candidates doing the same two or three years ago, and these are cheap PR stunts meant to work as ‘a political currency’ to win elections.
It makes no sense jumping over trenches or taking pictures with malnourished kids and promising to employ people at the EPZ. The photo and promise don’t relate and why should you wait till you are elected to hire people? Do it now if you can because empty promises work no more. Maybe Shebesh has not done a commendable job other controversies here and there, but her successor must be the serious candidate, not a restless socialite.
This article expresses the author’s opinion only. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Kenya Insights or its Editors. We welcome opinion and views on topical issues. Email:[email protected]
Luis Moreno Ocampo the former Prosecutor of the ICC
New York Times’ James Verini did a month’s long investigated story looking into how International Criminal Court (ICC) embodied the hope of bringing warlords and demagogues to justice. The story then goes to see how the then Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo took on the heir to Kenya’s most powerful political dynasty. The article, which has since gone viral, is causing stomach upsets amongst those severely mentioned. President Kenyatta has bashed the magazine for being inconsiderate terming the publication a falsehood and done in bad faith.
President Kenyatta from the onset has been a fierce critic of the court where he was charged alongside the famous Ocampo six for crimes against humanity. All the suspects have since been exonerated with the last defendants to escape noose being his counterpart in Jubilee government Deputy President William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Sang.
Uhuru Kenyatta’s rise coincided with the rise of Mungiki, the group Moreno-Ocampo would later accuse him of conspiring with in the post-election violence, writes James Verini. Started as a tribal revivalist movement, Mungiki grew into a militaristic political fraternity and then into a criminal gang. Around the time Mungiki fought to take over the lucrative private bus lines that are the primary form of transport in Kenya, in the early 2000s, the gang staged a massacre in northern Nairobi that left severed heads scattered in the streets.
Uhuru Kenyatta Follows proceedings at the ICC
By then, Mungiki was being described as a “state within a state,” with up to two million members, according to reports. They swore an oath of loyalty to the Kikuyu tribe and the Mungiki leader, a charismatic, ruthless man known as Maina Njenga. According to the ICC, new recruits “were told they would be killed if they violated the oath or left the organisation.” When clashes broke out between Kikuyu and other tribes, Njenga dispatched his men to fight.
He also persuaded politicians to take the Mungiki oath. Paul Muite, a Member of Parliament at the time and now a lawyer who represents Njenga and other members of Mungiki, which is still active, told me that almost every Kikuyu politician of consequence he knew during that era took the oath. For Njenga, it was “a way of collecting” power, Muite says. According to Muite and a former lieutenant of Njenga’s with whom NY Times spoke to, one of the politicians who took the oath, before becoming president, was Kibaki.
Some Mungiki members, including Njenga, supported Kenyatta’s 2002 presidential campaign. Kenyatta denounced the group and would later tell Moreno-Ocampo in court that “I have always publicly condemned and stated that I have no association whatsoever with Mungiki.” Njenga’s former lieutenant, however, described to me a series of meetings he attended with Kenyatta and Njenga in 2002, saying that Kenyatta was friendly with Mungiki. But, he added, Kenyatta didn’t like or trust Njenga.
In the 2007 election, Kenyatta did not run, instead supporting Kibaki in his race against Raila Odinga. By the close of Election Day, two days after Christmas, the vote was too close to call. The count was delayed. The tally centre in Nairobi was mysteriously broken into. Then on Dec. 30, the government suddenly announced Kibaki had won. He was hurriedly sworn in, and a media blackout was imposed. Odinga instructed his followers to protest. By New Year’s Day, Kikuyu were being slaughtered. Mungiki began striking back in January.
Former Mungiki Leader Maina Njenga
The government did little to stop the post-election violence, but afterwards, it set up a commission of inquiry. Known as the Waki Commission, it issued a 529-page report in October 2008. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, an autonomous government agency, published a comparably exhaustive report.
Each was damning. Officials in Odinga’s party had planned violence months in advance, while envoys of President Kibaki met with Mungiki to plan retaliatory attacks. Security agents and the police had conspired with the gang. “There were no good guys,” a Waki commissioner, Pascal Kambale, told me. “There were only bad guys.”
Moreno-Ocampo, who monitored the violence as it was happening, travelled to Nairobi to speak with Kibaki. He encouraged Kibaki to refer Kenya to the ICC, as Congo and Uganda had made referrals. Government capacity wasn’t the problem, Moreno-Ocampo knew. Kenya was capable of trying the suspects.
Uhuru Kenyatta in one of his ICC appearances at the Hague Court
The problem was as it had been in Argentina: The government was the criminal. And not only the government. The National Commission on Human Rights report listed more than 200 suspected inciters and funders of the violence, including presidential cabinet members, legislators, businessmen, shopkeepers, farmers. In a moment of collective insanity, Kenyan society had turned on itself.
Still, Moreno-Ocampo continued to press Kenyan officials to begin prosecutions. In 2009, the Kenyan Parliament voted against a tribunal — unsurprisingly, as the Parliament itself was full of suspects — and Moreno-Ocampo requested that the ICC judges allow him to open an investigation. They did. It was the first time he invoked his power to seek charges on his authority, without a referral.
In a part, the magazine reflects back to Kenyatta senior reign, After Jomo was freed and elected president of an independent Kenya in 1964, his revolutionary impulses didn’t persist. He stocked the government and businesses with family members and fellow Kikuyu.
The Waki report didn’t name Kenyatta, but the National Commission on Human Rights report did, saying that he reportedly “attended meetings to plan for retaliatory violence by the Kikuyus” and “contributed funds.” Kenyatta was considered by many Kikuyu, including many Mungiki, to be their leader, and was understood to be the richest man in the country. If anyone had the motivation and funds to back an ethnic war, Moreno-Ocampo’s investigators reasoned, it was Kenyatta.
Maina Njenga in company of CORD lEADER rAILA oDINGA SHOWING HIS WOUNDS AFTER A FAILED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON HIS LIFE THAT LEFT HIS AIDES KILLED
The court considered charging Maina Njenga, the Mungiki sect Chairman. When Njenga was questioned by Kenyan investigators, he pleaded ignorance. But to the ICC investigators, he came clean. He detailed the structure of his organisation and its role in the violence. Njenga claimed to his lawyer, Paul Muite, that he had personally administered the Mungiki oath of loyalty to Kenyatta, though whether Njenga told this to ICC investigators is unclear. Njenga was “very forthright,” Muite told NY Times, and he later agreed to testify in The Hague.
In a punchy conclusion, the writer notes having spoken to a former Mungiki high ranked leader, like many Kenyans he was talking with, says he regrets the violence but believes it was necessary. The Kikuyu, his tribe, faced a massacre, he is convinced. The last time we met, I asked if he thought Kenyatta was guilty of the ICC charges.
A Luo PEV Victim displaying his wounds to a NY Times photographer
He recounted a meeting he attended in January 2008, in the midst of the postelection violence, where Kenyatta was the chief guest and Mungiki were present. In the meeting, Kenyatta was careful never to mention violence explicitly nor the gang by name. But he collected cash donations. I asked the former lieutenant if it was possible Kenyatta did not understand violence was being planned.
Following prolonged and weekly anti-IEBC demos spearheaded by CORD, the coalition at last called off the protests that in the last phase turned tragic with more than five people fell by police bullets and scores injured in the countrywide demonstrations.
CORD leadership in retreating said they were giving the government side a window period to consider dialogue on the smooth transition of the electoral body. However in a quick rejoinder, legislators allied to the Jubilee party laughed off opposition’s demands saying parliament is the only deciding factor in the IEBC turmoil, this given their monopoly in parliament will provide them with a smooth sail.
Elsewhere, despite the deafening loud cries, the Isaak Hassan led commission has stood its ground vowing never to resign come Jesus or devil. In the latest pompous assertion, the IEBC chairperson said they would rather go to jail than quit; this was in line with the chicken gate scandal.
Like most of past public interest cases like that of former finance minister Kimunya who famously said he’d rather die than resign, to Waiguru, who rubbished off resignation calls, Isaack, and his team has adopted the familiar sound of standing firm despite public pressure.
Police going after a protestor during the anti IEBC demos
As history would have it, most of those who publicly defied the pressure did so just for a moment before the kitchen caught fire and they stormed out. The die is cast for Hassan and his team. However, much high and hard faced they might want the public to see.
As an electoral body, public trust and integrity are a significant factor in upholding its existence, and as things stand, IEBC doesn’t meet the threshold.
Demographically, half of the Kenya’s electorate figures given political factors that are CORD vs. Jubilee and rest who are pro-IEBC have lost trust in the electoral body. This in the spirit of public interest disqualifies the current IEBC as it is to oversee the incoming elections.
IEBC still have a corruption scandal, the chicken gate to deal with, while the corrupt counterparts I the UK are in jail surrounded by police, in Kenya the chicken gate fellows are also having police protection only that they’re inside their offices, free.
Translucently, IEBC is still under focus following the failures of the BVR kits during the last elections that was highly contested and recently according to sources, and the same tools loaned to Burundi where again the elections were allegedly marred with inconsistencies.
Adding up all these fundamental issues makes IEBC, not one of the best to go on with into the next elections. Integrity is critical and also given Kenya’s history with post-election violence blamed on skewed polling system, the country can’t afford to gamble with its existing or assumed peace.
Alternatively, away from the unending fiasco, the debate can be brought to rest with a political solution. We must agree as a constitutional body, and IEBC should only be removed within the constraints of law, but that won’t be possible given the political temperatures and legislative composition which will give one side an open upper hand.
Kenya must adopt a political solution rather than constitutional in ending the IEBC standoff.
An old lady trapped in the lethal smoke of teargas lobbied by the police during the demos in Nairobi
Synchronically, the opposition, CORD, have called off the weekly demos to give space for a dialogue a political path that should move towards untying the tight knot. Giving their demands, CORD proposed for Jubilee to nominate their choices to IEBC, and they will also do and bring in a neutral body, advising UN to oversee the incoming elections that the opposition have largely accused the government of plotting to rig. This system applied in South Africa during the post-apartheid period when Mandela came home from jail. Like a hen whose head has been cut off, Isaak Hassan and his team can jump up and down but it’s only moments before they go silent.
