Kenya Election Chief: Rigging Possible
Kenya’s electoral chief compared the president to a notoriously corrupt predecessor on Wednesday and acknowledged the December election may have been rigged. His remarks came as negotiators sequestered themselves at a luxury game lodge to hammer out a deal aimed at ending weeks of bloodshed over the disputed presidential vote. More than 1,000 Kenyans have died and some 600,000 have fled their homes.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga accuses President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the Dec. 27 election, and domestic and international observers have said there was rigging — possibly by both sides. Odinga and Kibaki have been under pressure to share power as a solution.
Electoral commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu said it was possible the vote had been tampered with. Kivuitu previously said that even though he declared Kibaki the winner, he was unsure who really won the election. He once was well respected, but has been ridiculed for that remark. “There are many ways of rigging,” Kivuitu said in an interview with independent Nation TV. “There are allegations. We don’t know if they are true.” He also said that he had been too sick to oversee many parts of the process personally.
Kivuitu added that he had been struck by the speed with which the president and his entourage were ready for the swearing in, less than an hour after he had announced the results. “It reminded me of the days of Moi,” he said.
When Kibaki was first elected in 2002, he was welcomed as the antithesis of President Daniel arap Moi, accused of corruption and of plundering the state treasury for his and his cronies’ benefit. Kibaki’s anti-corruption reputation soon faded, and he has been accused not only of ignoring graft in his administration, but of shielding criminals from past administrations. Moi endorsed Kibaki’s re-election bid.
A news blackout on the peace talks, meanwhile, appeared to be holding Wednesday. Neither party was reachable to comment on the discussions. Top negotiators said Tuesday that the opposition was proposing sharing power with the government for two years, then holding new elections. A government official confirmed on condition of anonymity that the two sides were meeting at safari lodge in the Tsavo West National Park in southern Kenya.
Much of the violence has pitted other ethnic groups against members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu community, long resented for their perceived stranglehold on the country’s business and politics. There are concerns that ethnic groups fleeing areas where they were in the minority will never return. In western Kenya Wednesday, police chief Bernard Muli said police were investigating complaints that Raphael Ndara Ndiwa, a former provincial police chief, backed armed youths who torched homes and shops in Trans-Nzoia. Ndiwa was released conditionally pending the results of the investigation, Muli said. Charges have not yet been filed.
Leading human rights organizations in Kenya have said some of the worst violence has been perpetrated by paid militias directed by politicians. They cite a long history of orchestrated political violence in Kenya. Jendayi Frazer, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, has called for an investigation into who may be instigating violence in Kenya.
Associated Press
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