Kivuitu to finally bear blame over election violence

Finally, the prayers of 30 million Kenyans seems to be on the verge of fulfillment.

President Kibaki has finally given the Kriegler Commission the green light to make any recommendations they deem fit on the ECK and the election process in general, a move that has surely sealed the fate of Kivuitu and his 21 thieves. The Kriegler Commission has placed the blame squarely on the ECK, adding that they are liable for the 2007 election fraud and ensuing violence that claimed over 1,000 lives and displaced thousands more.

Sources said the President told members of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into last year’s elections that they would not be overstepping their mandate by making adverse proposals against the ECK. The sources added that disbanding the ECK was an option, given that strong recommendations had been made before the commission.

The commission met Raila Odinga six weeks ago, according to the PM’s spokesman, Salim Lone. A resettlement programme is currently underway and the Government says only 20,000 people were still in camps for uprooted families. The commission, headed by retired judge Johann Kriegler from South Africa, decided to call on the President to find out whether it would be acting within its mandate to draw up recommendations against the Kivuitu-led team that presided over last year’s elections which plunged the country into two months of bloodshed.

The Kriegler commission was concerned that negative sentiments had been building up during the hearings and could not be ignored in their final report. The team was prompted to make the visit following strong presentations by the Law Society of Kenya and the Institute for Education in Democracy. LSK chairman Okong’o O’Mogeni had proposed that electoral commission be disbanded on grounds that it had suffered irreparable damage.