AN ILLEGITIMATE PARLIAMENT IS INCAPABLE OF SETTING UP A LEGITIMATE INTERIM ELECTORAL BODY!

By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
February 25, 2009

The Kriegler Report that nullified the Electoral Commission of Kenya was quite categorical; that Kenyans would never know who won the elections. In the report; which formed the basis of disbanding the ECK as we knew it; there are indications that there were massive riggings at all levels of the process. If over a million dead voters found their way to our polling booths on December 27, 2007, then there is no way any government in Kenya today can claim legitimacy. The process was rotten and faulty from beginning to the finish.

Let us not for a moment forget that this same controversial and maligned process was supervised by Kivuitu’s team. And since we have acknowledged that they failed us and sent them home; it would be hypocritical of us to claim that they were wrong while our members of Parliament together with councilors were elected properly!
It cannot be possible that the referee blunders in the field; chaos erupt while the teams continue to play the game and score goals then the same goals are accepted as valid!
The illegitimacy of this government has its origins in a fraudulent declaration of constituency and presidential results when even the then chairman of the ECK publicly acknowledged that he could not account for and neither knew the whereabouts of some of his returning officers. He went on to suggest that he suspected some of them were still cooking results!

More telling was the fact that a few days later, he confessed that he did not know who won the presidential elections because he was coerced into announcing the fraudulent results by PNU and ODM-K big wigs. This inability to know the real winner was corroborated by the Kriegler Report.

Be that as it may; the theory that the exit polls conducted by the International Republican Institute indicated that it was the ODM rather than the PNU presidential candidate that carried the day still goes to confirm that we have some people in government who should not be there. We have some people in Parliament who should not be there. The real winners are somewhere still nursing their wounds in the crowd irrespective of the government ya mseto!

It is on record that Kenyans fought each other to death following the announcement of fraudulent election results. It is true those who claimed victory had to eat humble pie and invite the losers to share in the government. However, with all due respect to both parties, this Grand Coalition could not and will not right the wrongs visited on Kenyans by our faulty political system.

The truth it; Kenyans voted on the basis of respective party manifestoes that they believed would respond to their hopes, expectations and needs. They did not vote for an amalgamation of party manifestoes that competed bitterly for their votes.
As it is now, there are so many Parliamentary Committees that are composed of the same scoundrels that stole our election in 2007. The same thieves are not over yet with us. Their eyes are already trained on the 2012 elections. They are the same wolves in sheep’s clothes working day and night to give Kenyans another set of election conmen in the Interim Electoral Commission.

This is the reason the selection process of the now stalled IIEC has been faulty right from the appointment of a reputable firm to short list candidates. That is why unknown candidates are popping up from the woodworks as experts to lead the process.
Because these scoundrels successfully manipulated the last ECK; they have the temerity to think they can pull a fast one on unsuspecting Kenyans again.

Another thing; let no ODM brigade be fooled into supporting a particular candidate who they think is likely to safeguard their interests. This is the wrong premise to start from. Because of ODM, Kivuiti had his contract renewed at the last minute when all indications were that Kibaki was set to get rid of him. The very ODM that supported Kivuitu lived to regret it.

What Kenyans need is a transparent process, a non-partisan process led by a reputable international recruitment agency; not a local partisan company prone to ethnic manipulation. I do not see why KP MG or Price Water House Coopers cannot be hired to lead the selection process. At least they have their international reputation to worry about.

Abdikadir’s Parliamentary committee as composed to day is likely to give us more of the same than anything else. You throw in a few PNU hardliners, ODM-K tricksters and ODM schemers and you have a proper recipe for disaster round two!

jerryokungu@gmail.com