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Kenya election chief spills the beans
2008-01-03 09:09:51
By Nairobi
Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu and AU Chairman and Ghana`s President John Kufour are on their way to Nairobi to mediate the political crisis in Kenya.
Meanwhile, as President Kibaki summoned all the MPs elect from all political parties to a meeting at State House yesterday evening, Kenya Electoral Commission (ECK) chairman Samuel Kivuitu has made damning remarks that he announced the results of the fiercely contested presidential election under pressure.
The electoral commission chairman was asked if indeed President Kibaki had won the elections. He responded: ``I do not know whether Kibaki won the election.``
The ECK chief met reporters at his home, where a meeting with electoral commissioners had been held.
Kivuitu said he took the presidential election winner``s certificate to State House in Nairobi after ``some people threatened to collect it while I’m the one mandated by law to do so.”
``I arrived at State House to take the certificate and I found the Chief Justice there, ready to swear in Kibaki,`` said Kivuitu.
On claims that he was under undue pressure to declare results, he said: `Some PNU (Party of National Unity) and ODM-Kenya leaders put me under pressure by calling me frequently, asking me to announce the results immediately``.
President Kibaki ran for re-election on a Party of National Unity ticket, while Kalonzo Musyoka made his bid on an ODM-Kenya ticket.
Raila Odinga, who has said he was robbed of victory, ran on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) ticket.
Kivuitu said the alleged pressure to declare results came in the wake of parallel pressure from a number of ambassadors from the European Union countries and an official of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights not to announce the results until the arising complaints were addressed.
``I had thought of resigning, but thought against it because I don’t want people to say I`m a coward,`` he said. The embattled ECK chairman made the revelations shortly after meeting with 22 ECK commissioners.
``If this matter is finally taken to court, the ruling should be made urgently so that if it were decided that Raila is the President, so be it. If it is Kibaki, so be it,`` he added.
Kivuitu fell short of naming the individuals from the two parties — PNU and ODM-Kenya — who coerced him to announce the disputed poll outcome, but went on to announce that the commission was consulting eminent lawyers over the next course of action ``so that its actions remain within the law``.
The EU observer team has discredited the poll results and called for an independent audit.
``We are culprits as a commission. We have to leave it to an independent group to investigate what actually went wrong,`` the chairman said, stunning local and international journalists who had gathered at his Nairobi residence.
The chairman made the revelations as four electoral commissioners made a call for an independent judicial process to review the tallying of the presidential election results.
Commissioners Jack Tumwa, Joseph Hamisi Dena, Daniel Ndambiri, Samuel arap Ng’eny and Jeremiah Matagaro addressed a news conference, saying they, too, were concerned by the issues raised over the election results.
At least 35 people, most of them women and children, died on Tuesday in Eldoret in the most bizarre killing yet in the ongoing post-election violence.
They were killed when more than 200 youths torched a church where residents of two villages in Eldoret South constituency had sought refuge.
As violence continues to rock Kenya, the military has been deployed to various parts of the country affected by violence following President Kibaki’s re-election.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the military has been deployed to assist in averting a humanitarian crisis.
He said the soldiers would help in the distribution of food, blankets and medical supplies in those areas.
Meanwhile, following an influx of many Kenyans into Uganda to escape ethnic cleansing, the Ugandan government has deployed its military along the border with Kenya.
Dr Mutua also said the government was ruling out mediation as a means of ending the skirmishes rocking parts of the country following the impasse over the controversial presidential election results.
The spokesman said the country was not at war to warrant the deployment of mediators to re-establish peace in the country.
``We have not yet reached a Somalia-like situation to allow mediators to come to our country,`` he told a news conference.
``Dialogue is the way to go. The President is willing to engage the various aggrieved parties in dialogue in a bid to resolve all the problems facing this country,`` he added.
As political mayhem continues, hospitals in Kenya yesterday made passionate appeals for blood donations to help cope with hundreds of injured survivors of the riots.
Meanwhile, the umbrella workers union COTU has appealed to President Mwai Kibaki to initiate dialogue with other parties to resolve the political crisis.
COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli said the crisis facing the country was politically instigated and could only be solved by political means.
He said Kenya had been known for long as a peace-brokering nation amongst other African countries and regretted that it is now going through a stalemate.
Atwoli appealed for calm and tolerance among Kenyans, citing the previous co-existence as a reason ``to indicate the unity we share as a nation``.
He added that Kenyans cannot afford to sit back and watch what they have built in years destroyed.
``Ordinary Kenyans who are dying never participated in the irregularities being cited in the electoral process. They only exercised their democratic right to vote,`` said Atwoli.
In Nairobi, the South African High Commissioner has confirmed that Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu was on his way to Kenya to mediate the election crisis.
The African Union has also sent a statement confirming that the AU Chairman and Ghana`s president John Kufour was on his way to Nairobi.
Uganda, which relies on Kenya for its fuel supply, was by yesterday experiencing a shortage of the essential commodity.
The country`s aviation authority has directed all flights destined for Entebbe airport to refuel at Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, as Entebbe experienced an acute shortage of jet fuel following the violence in Kenya.
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