By Muniini K. Mulera
We live in an era of linguistic deception; of calling things what they are not; of not calling things what they are. People do not die. They pass away. A country’s president, a certified pathological liar, does not tell lies. He misspeaks. He misrepresents the truth. A government minister does not steal public funds. He misappropriates them. He is not a thief or robber. He is corrupt. Listen to the barrage of painfully deceptive words in reference to the disaster that was Kenya’s presidential election ten days ago. Scribes and diplomats alike report that the Kenyan presidential election was "flawed"; it was marred by "irregularities," "malpractices" and "loopholes" in the tallying of the votes.
These are soft words that make it sound like innocuous incompetence; mischief by naughty politicians and their agents; nothing more than that. I refuse to engage in such diplomatic circumlocution in this deceptive intellectual tip-toeing around matters that demand calling a spade a spade.
What happened in Kenya was grand thieving, daylight robbery by political bandits who care less about Kenya than they do about their overflowing pockets and egos. To avoid ambiguity, let us record for posterity that the Kenyan presidential election of December 27, 2007 was stolen by Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki, in a civil-paramilitary coup that began long before the millions of hopeful Kenyan voters went to the polls to elect their new president, Raila Amolo Odinga.
Yes, that’s right. The elected president of Kenya is the son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, he who wrote, 40 years ago, Not Yet Uhuru, a classic treatise whose title is true today as it was all those many years ago. That is why it is a great insult to the Kenyan people to ask their chosen leader, Raila Odinga, to join Kibaki, the loser who stole the throne, in a so-called government of national unity (GNU). It is akin to asking a man to return to his own house, to join those who have robbed and raped his house and spouse in a fellowship dance of death.
No, the Kenyan people have rejected Kibaki, along with most of his ministers and parliamentary candidates. To force him onto them, no matter what justification, is to annul their democratic and human rights. Stay the course Raila. Say no to the Americans and the British and whoever else is afraid to call a spade a spade.
A week ago I, like most of the world, laboured under the view that Kenya’s ruling classes and their Electoral Commission (ECK) were committed to democracy. Today, I stand disabused of this illusion, not only by the confessions of ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu; and not only by careful analysis of the published electoral results, but by the most extraordinary tales I have heard first hand from sources that were right at the centre of the Kibaki coup.
According to my sources, with whom I have spoken at length by telephone, the events of last week were a culmination of a well-calculated and brilliantly executed plot that was hatched at least two years ago to keep Kibaki in power. The Kenyan referendum of 2005, which was won by Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), left no doubt in the Kibaki Court that there was little hope of winning the presidential election of 2007.
My sources have confirmed as true the allegations by Raila Odinga that a combined force of the Administration Police (AP) headed by Commandant Kinuthia Mbugua, members of the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) led by Director General Michael Gichangi, and sections of the Kenya Armed Forces, led by Lt. Gen. Julius Karangi, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff (DCGS) swung into action to sabotage the democratic hopes and rights of Kenyans. My sources told me that the Administration Police, very loyal to Kibaki, was drilled in election rigging and funds from the security services were used to buy electoral clerks and returning officers of the ECK.
Above all, “advance marking” of presidential ballots were embarked on by six AP officers, allegedly headed by one Jabel Munene. According to my sources, by election day, pre-marked ballots giving Kibaki a huge lead over Odinga had been transported to many polling stations across the country, carried there in 56 buses that also ferried 3,500 AP officers who had shed their police uniforms in exchange for ECK polling agents’ and returning officers’ badges.
The AP officers-cum-polling agents who went to Odinga’s home province of Nyanza were attacked and forced to retreat by the locals. They had taken the precaution of rigging the Nyanza ballots in favour of Odinga to make their voting patterns appear "genuine." Furthermore, where they inflated the numbers for Kibaki, they made sure they inflated Raila’s numbers, but to a lesser degree of course. To be sure of "victory" they created new polling stations, complete with ballot-filled boxes that gave Kibaki decisive "wins" over Odinga. This ballot stuffing and substitution of fake "ballot boxes" for the official ones into which Kenyans cast their votes by the millions, is the reason why Kibaki and his courtiers have been calling for a recount.
But that is also why Odinga and the ODM, fully aware of the entire anatomy of the robbery, have rejected the idea of a recount. They are right. What Kenyans need is a fresh election, conducted and supervised by a team from the United Nations and from a select group of truly democratic members of the African Union.
Meanwhile, as the world continues to dispense its advice to the Kenyan leaders and citizens, we should all meditate upon this secret brief, which was written by the Analysis and Production Division of the NSIS, and sent to President Kibaki on December 29, 2007:
“Any announcement which would not favour Raila Odinga is going to be a source of anarchy in the country.”Kibaki ignored the advice of his intelligence agents. Rivers of blood now flow in what was supposedly an island of stability.
Contact: mkmulera@aol.com
Comments