Joluo's Weblog » Who’s Who

How Kenya’s election was rigged

joluo — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:52:26 +0000

By Shashank Bengali, McClatchy Newspapers

Thu Jan 31, 6:00 AM ET

NAIROBI, Kenya — The spark for Kenya’s firestorm of ethnic violence was lit inside a cavernous meeting hall in downtown Nairobi , where election officials over four days doctored vote counts, dismissed eye-popping irregularities and thwarted monitoring by independent observers to deliver a razor-thin victory to President Mwai Kibaki .

Observers who were allowed into the vote-tallying center on Dec. 29-30 , hours before the results were announced, said there was so much systematic fraud by Kenya’s government-appointed election commission that it’s impossible to know who really won.

The extent of the commission’s deceptions has faded into the background as more than 800 Kenyans have been killed in ethnic clashes and police crackdowns. The events also have deeply unsettled the Bush administration, which has relied on Kenya as an ally in the war on terror and a bulwark of stability in East Africa .

Official results gave Kibaki an edge of 231,728 votes, or 2 percent, out of about 10 million cast. Initial results of an exit poll by the U.S.-funded International Republican Institute found that rival Raila Odinga had won by an 8 percent margin.

Election officials allowed five accredited Kenyan observers into the tallying center in Nairobi only in the final phase of vote-counting, and three of them shared their accounts with McClatchy. All said that the gravest cheating occurred in that room, where commissioners— all appointed by Kibaki— compiled returns before announcing them to the public.

The observers spoke in interviews and quoted from a joint log of their experiences, titled “Countdown to Deception,” which Kenyan rights groups are circulating.

The long-serving chairman of Kenya’s election commission played an active role in the deception, the observers said. When a tallying officer presented results showing voter turnout at 115 percent in Maragua, a Kibaki stronghold in the central highlands, commission Chairman Samuel Kivuitu didn’t invalidate the result as required by law, but allowed a commissioner to reduce the figure to 85 percent and announced the results an hour later.

That was the pattern that observers reported: Results were announced even when documents were missing, incomplete, unsigned by officers or party representatives, incorrectly tabulated, photocopied or forged.

“Both sides stole votes,” said Julius Melli , a 31-year-old Kenyan radiographer who witnessed the tallying of Maragua and other locales. “But Kibaki stole more, and they stole it inside the tallying center.”

The Electoral Commission of Kenya , an independent body whose members are appointed by the president, had run national elections in 2002 and 2005 that were praised for their openness and accuracy.

But except for Kivuitu, who’d served as chairman since 1997, this was a largely different commission. As members faced term limits in the months before the vote, Kibaki— facing the stiffest presidential challenge ever in Kenya — packed the 22-person body with 17 new commissioners. All were considered Kibaki allies, and none had ever run an election.

“These people were criminals,” said Ben Sihanya, a Stanford -educated constitutional law professor who also observed the tallying. “They were committing crimes at the behest of Kibaki’s government.”

Election officials were unreachable for comment, but the commission has taken out a two-page, unsigned advertisement in Kenyan newspapers to deny wrongdoing.

Koki Muli , the co-chair of the Kenya Domestic Observers Forum , suspected problems soon after the polls closed on the evening of Dec. 27 . Her network of observers monitoring the vote-counting in polling stations immediately began sending preliminary results by phone and text messages. But for two days, in the Nairobi convention hall where the election commission had set up shop— surrounded by hundreds of journalists, observers and party agents— Kivuitu announced only some of the returns.

Observers grew suspicious when results from Kibaki’s central Kenya stronghold weren’t read. The delays were sparking protests. “It was necessary for us to observe the tallying,” Muli said.

For 48 hours, armed agents barred observers from entering the tallying center, a high-ceilinged room almost the size of a football field. Finally, faced with mounting reports of irregularities, Kivuitu allowed five observers and a handful of political party representatives into the room on the night of Dec. 29 . They were greeted with nervous stares.

“What I saw in that room alarmed me,” Muli said. “It was a very scared staff.”

Commissioners and staff members were seated around a dozen or so long tables, each strewn with folders containing the legal forms required to certify vote counts. In one corner of the room, a bank of computers churned out results and printouts.

The lanky, bespectacled Sihanya walked up to a table and introduced himself to commissioner Mildred Owour . “Can we sit at your table?” he asked.

“You are going to slow down the process,” she replied.

At about 10 p.m. , Sihanya, Melli and two other observers sat down with agents of the main political parties and several commissioners and election officials. Their task was to scrutinize irregularities reported by Odinga’s camp— and there were many.

In at least 44 out of 210 constituencies, officials in Nairobi had announced vote totals without any supporting documents from the polling centers. In most places the announced totals were off by hundreds or thousands from what journalists, party agents and foreign observers had witnessed at polling places.

The team prepared to work through the night. When commission staff members brought a stack of folders, observers asked to check whether vote totals had been added correctly.

The commission’s legal officer, Jemimah Kelli , rebuffed them.

“She said, ‘We can’t correct the tallying now. The commission will take care of it,’” Sihanya recalled.

At another table, Muli was scratching her head over results from Mathira, in central Kenya , where nearly everyone voted for Kibaki. Election officers had failed to sign the tallies from nearly three dozen polling places, and one form had two different totals. Muli took out her cell phone and began adding up the numbers.

She calculated 77,442 votes for Kibaki, some 2,600 fewer than what was recorded on the final tally sheet and announced to the public. Later she discovered inflated vote totals for Kibaki in several other areas— “3,000 here, 3,000 there, 1,500 here, 2,500 there,” she said. “It added up.”

At his table, Melli saw numerous constituencies that lacked tally sheets or official signatures, but whose results had been certified anyway. In one folder, he found two tallies for the same place— one a signed original, the other an unsigned photocopy that had been altered to give Kibaki about 3,000 more votes.

The photocopied version had been used.

“It looked very ridiculous,” Melli said. But Kenyan election laws didn’t authorize observers to do anything more than note inconsistencies.

The legal officer, Kelli, moaned that officials had gone without sleep for several days, and she harassed Melli for paying too much attention to detail.

“She told Melli, ‘You seem to be very keen. Are you being paid to do this?’” Sihanya said. (They in fact were not paid.)

When Sihanya questioned inconsistencies in one Kibaki stronghold, a Kibaki party representative, Martha Karua, accused him of being an opposition agent.

“The whole thing seemed extremely stage-managed,” Melli said. “It was not a sincere verification exercise.”

As the night wore on, officials became cagier. Melli asked an official for the file from Nithi, where turnout was a suspiciously high 80 percent and nearly all the votes had gone to Kibaki. The official blanched, pulled the file close to his chest and, for the rest of the night, carried it with him everywhere he went, Melli said.

The file for Kieni in central Kenya showed 87,500 parliamentary votes— nearly 3,000 more than the number of registered voters. The file for Imenti South district, where Kibaki had 96 percent support, showed 4,315 more presidential votes than parliamentary votes but contained no supporting documents. At 5 a.m. on Dec. 30 , the file for another central district, Molo, finally appeared showing 50,145 votes for Kibaki. The chairman later announced 75,261.

“They just gave Kibaki 25,000 votes from the air,” Muli said.

Finally, at around 9 a.m. , Karua, the Kibaki aide, said the verification had to be halted so that the commissioners could get “back to work.” An Odinga aide said he had concerns about other files, but Karua and three election officials at the table stood up to leave.

One of the commissioners, Luciano Riunga Raiji, told the observers, “You are done.” Shortly afterward, a message blared over the loudspeaker ordering all observers and party agents to leave the room. By then, Melli said, it was clear that the commissioners had no intention of investigating the irregularities.

“We were waiting for them to announce the final results,” he said. “But we knew Kibaki had stolen it.”

Muli, who’s helped train commissioners for 14 years, said: “We didn’t imagine that the electoral commissioners could in a massive way influence the conduct of the election. We were wrong.”

The next several hours were surreal, the observers said. As word swept through the convention hall that Kibaki would be declared the winner, Odinga called a news conference and accused the commission of rigging the vote in 48 constituencies.

A few hours later, the opposition trotted out an election staffer, Kipkemoi Kirui, who said that officials were manipulating results at the tallying center. “My conscience could not allow me to see what I was seeing and keep quiet,” Kirui told reporters. He’s now fled the country, according to media reports.

An hour after that, the lights went off in the convention hall, and paramilitary police cleared the building. In a sealed room, the election chairman announced Kibaki’s victory on state television. Within minutes, rioters were tearing through the streets of Nairobi .

Kenya’s nightmare had begun.

(Special correspondent Munene Kilongi contributed.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080131/wl_mcclatchy/2833410

RELEASE OKIYA OKOITI IMMEDIATELY

joluo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:01:53 +0000

Subject: Release Okiya Okoiti Immediately.
By Odhiambo Omolo
1/24/08

RELEASE OKIYA OKOITI IMMEDIATELY.

Could the whole world ask the Kenya government to release Okiya Omtatah Okoiti immediately? This is total abuse of power. Okiya did not hurt anybody but he was just expressing his anger by chaining himself on fence at the Police Headquarters. It was alledged that he was trying to commit suicide. Saitoti and Major Ali should make sure that Okiya is safe whever they are keeping him.There are so many criminals in Kenya who should be charged in court of law and some of them are George Kinuthia Saitoti- Goldenberg, Kiraitu Murungi-Anglo Leasing, Mwai Kibaki- Ken Gen and many more. Okiya did not steal even a penny from the public.

Ends.

KIBAKI WAS FORCED!!!!

joluo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:37:39 +0000

KIBAKI WAS FORCED AND RUSHED INTO A SWEARING CEREMONY BY THE MT.KENYA MAFIA IN A MEETING CHAIRED BY MICHUKI TOP SOURCES PRIVY TO NSIS TOP OFFICALS BASED AT THE HEADQUARTERS ARE CONFIRMING THAT WHILE PRESIDENT KIBAKI WANTED TO CALL A PRESS CONFERENCE TO ONCEDE DEFEAT WHILE 90% OF THE VOTRES HAD BEEN COUNTED, 48HRS BEFORE ELECTION AN EMERGENCY MEETING CHAIRED BY MICHUKI AND SECONDED BY NICHOLAS BIWOTT AND LUCY KIBAKI AT MICHUKI AND OWNED WINDSOR GOLF WHEREBY BIWOTT AND DANIEL ARAP THREATENED TO LEAVE KIBAKI ALONE TO FIGHT HIS OWNED PROBLEMS AND THEY WOULD FLEE THE COUNTRY TO MAURITANIA IF HE DOESNT FORCE HIS WAY INTO VICTORY.
MICHUKI IS REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN SO ANNOYED HE LIT A CIGARRETE OF
EMBASSY KINGS INFRONT OF THE CLIQUE AND MADAME LUCY, SAYING KIBAKI
SHOULD LEAVE EVERYTHING TO HIM, HE’LL HANDLE.

A TELEPHONE CALL, NUMBER WITHHELD, WAS MADE TO KIVUITU BY
BIWOTT,TELLING HIM THAT,WAZEE WA NCHI WAME DECIDE THAT HE SHOULD
INAUGURATE KIBAKI OR ELSE LEAVE KENYA WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT. HE WAS OFFERED KES 242 MILLION IN RETURN,WHICH HE ACCEPTED AND A POST OF KENYA’S AMBASSADOR TO BOTSWANA COME MARCH, WHICH HE ACCEPTED.

-Sent by Seydou

—–

READERS: This reports is unconfirmed. We guess we’ll know more in March should that post as ambassador to Botswana (or wherever) materialize. Anyone have access to Kivuitu’s bank statements?

- Jaluo Press

What could Kibaki have discussed with Museveni [ M7 ]

joluo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:18:33 +0000

Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:38:52 -0800 (PST)

Confirmed: President Mwai Kibaki visited Uganda
Last updated : 15 Jan 2008, Kampala

Radio Katwe has done its cross checking and can now confirm to its readers that President Mwai Kibaki the Kenyan head of state (a title in hot dispute) paid a surprise visit to Uganda last Thursday.

Rumours have been in Kampala that Kibaki visited his fellow dictator Yoweri Museveni but we could not confirm them at first. Now we have seen concrete evidence that Kibaki was in Uganda.

Many Ugandans are worried by why Kibaki chose to come to Uganda at a time when Kenya is in big problems. They are worried that Kibaki might have got to Uganda to consult a man who besides other titles like elections stealer, and serial breaker of Agreements between conflicting parties, is most well known as veteran of genocide against civilians.

Recently we saw pictures of youths in Kenya carrying machetes (pangas) and it brought back memories of the pangas used in the Rwandan Genocide. We earlier wrote about a truck full of new pangas that was taken from Uganda to Rwanda just before the terrible genocide there.

We have not got any news about what they discussed but when the most powerful and corrupt men get together to strike deals, the people of East Africa should get worried.

Foul play is being suspected between Museveni and Kibaki.

- Sent by Keith

Kalonzo Miracle!!

joluo — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:13:07 +0000

Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:44:34 +0000 (GMT)

The Diplomatic passport that was withdrawn previously by the Devil Kiguoya, he has now managed to get it back again from the Devil ! (this time with the aid of one Lucy Kibaki !).

There is only one problem, this Dancer when performing at State House,being a loyal poor cousin (unlike Ngilu who refused to dance! ), has to take one slap in public from Lucy (like Musyimi did) in return.

Some miracle!

Iqbal

————

READERS: This report is unconfirmed. It appears that Kalonzo Musyoka may have gotten back that special passport… Too bad there may be an impending travel ban…

http://www.uusc.org/info/Kenyastatement.html

Nation Media Group playing dirty and biased – nothing about Kisumu shooting victims service…

joluo — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:56:17 +0000

Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:47:37 -0800 (PST)

ALL,

I hope you can all see it; that Nation Media Group is playing dirty and callous in the hands of the illegal gov’t. I don’t honestly understand why such a major media house should find nothing to put on the front-page when such an emotional service of police brutality that takes place in Kisumu forms a major major point and message to expose to the world, just in the same manner that Standard newspapers have done. Would you all join me in condemning the biased media coverage by NMG. I urge Kenyans to shun NMG and turn to better media houses that are ready to be forthright with the matters on the ground regardless of fears created by the illegal govnt machinations.

Thanks you.

Chrisogonas

BBC E-mail: Kenya’s ‘mafia’ feel the heat

joluo — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:34:28 +0000

Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:10:54 GMT

Rene saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you
should see it.

** Message **
Please, share this article with your readers . This is what the international press is saying about the situation in Kenya.

** Kenya’s ‘mafia’ feel the heat **
BBC’s Noel Mwakugu analyses the influence of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki’s close circle of friends, the “Mount Kenya Mafia”.

< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7199757.stm >

KIBAKI, MICHUKI, MARTHA KARUA

joluo — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:35:47 +0000

Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 05:39:34 -0800 (PST)

Robert,

You are coming around. The debate is getting STRAIGHT. Everyone is feeling the pain.

Informed sources spells that: KIBAKI, MICHUKI, MARTHA KARUA are the BREWERS of this MEYHEM and KILLINGS.

Three people SHOULD NOT hold Kenyas HOSTAGE soaked in BLOOD at the same time deny Kenyans their Rights. I am surprised, WHERE ARE THE PASTORS AND PRIESTS? They should HOLD open BIG RALLYS to pray & Bind the Evil Spirit and Demonic power (The Power of Darkness) hoovering in Kenya before it consumes the people of Kenya. We must be our brothers keepers. Not just in times of Good Tidings. But in Storms as well.

Martha Karua’s eyes and mouth are FULL OF LIES, she will not BULGE or give an option to DIALOGUE. The only language they will understand is FORCE. But that does not stop the preaching of sanity for them to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ as well before they perish. Whether they like it or not the Worlds Intervention will be a reality they must be prepared to face it. This is Because God is alive, he is seeing all these. He is the same yesterday today and forevermore. He will answer the prayers of the believers. He will not let his powerless poor creation die in the hands of selfish, mean, UNFEELING beings who are driven by GREED. God never LIES, his WORD will come to pass and HIS PROMISE shall be our SHIELD. This does not mean we sit and wait, BUT in faith we keep the struggle. Leaders come and go, but the Faith and Hope of people for their future must be kept ALIVE and BURNING. This is the WILL of GOD.

God Bless you all at His service.

Judy

———————————–
Fact.. Robert!!

The price for democracy and fairness is being paid by the wrong ppl… Kenyans. Instead Kibaki should be the guy to pay.. whatever it is.

He lied to Kenyans.. and we must make it impossible for anyone to ever ever ever lie to Kenyans. It should be a demonstration to Africa and rest of the world.

Tonny
——————-
On 1/3/08 Robert wrote:

Kenyans

I needed to wake you up and I did. Kenyans were dying and are still dying while you want me to continue making kazi africa just a vacancy place. Let me tell you what I still believe. I believe that Kenya is greater than kazi africva and when a life is lost I can sacrifice even the forum for that.

I really dont care and ever believe in the words of malcom x. “You cant be peaceful with someone who is violent with you”. Kibaki, Michuki, Ali, Gichangi, Karume, Kimunya, Kinyua and others must be immediately eliminated by Kenyans patriotic forces. You can blame anybody you want but the violence was planned for a long time. Can you ask yourself one thing? Why is AP better armed for riot than GSU? If you see the vigour which the APs are beating the people and the paramilitary, GSU, you would know that this is not about elections.

This is a planned massacre and the next thing we are going to see is the marauding gangs killing opposing communities. Its going to happen but we just want to keep kazi africa that? Wake up guys. Peace can only be preached where it can exist. Peace can exist in Kenya. Law can only be followed where its really there. There is no law or rule of law in kenya. the law is selectively applied and let me tell you that even the recruitment of the judges prior to the elections was a scheme to beat all these.

Thats why Kimunya is insisting on ODM to go through Courts. ODM must not go through courts and Kenyans must be ready to suffer for democracy. I am not preaching for Raila to be made president. I am saying that Kibaki must step down and elections must be held afresh.

That’s my prayer to Kenya.

Alai

Sambaza: The hard-liners in the Kibaki clan

joluo — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:39:32 +0000

Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:45:43 +0300

Three ministers and two of President Kibaki’s advisors have made a point of scuppering the various attempts at mediation to solve the post-election conflict.
The Minister for Transport, John Michuki and his counterparts in finance, Amos Kimunya and justice Martha Karua, are the main people who advised President Mwai Kibaki to take a firm line in order to undermine international attempts at mediation. Two other people close to Kibaki adopted a similar stance: one of his old friends, Joe Wanjui, as well as the State House Permanent Secretary in charge of Strategy, Stanley Murage. This group has had individual meetings with Kibaki in the State House to advise him to reject all international intervention in the post-election conflict. They argue that this would be harmful to Kenya’s image, putting the country on the same level as Burundi, Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast or other African countries that have had strong international involvement in their internal conflicts.

For his part, the finance minister had no difficulty in persuading President Kibaki that Kenya did not have much need for European financial aid. He argued that Kenya had succeeded in funding the majority of its budget without significant international aid these last few years. Michuki and Karua gave the same arguments. In addition, they insisted that the Kenyan police forces were strong enough to contain the opposition demonstrations. According to them, the demonstrators would in any case lose their steam after a few days of strong activity in the streets. They feel that Kibaki should push a three-pronged strategy: contain the street demonstrations, insist on local rather than international mediation in order to concede as little ground as possible to the opposition, and thirdly to launch an international advertising campaign after the crisis has calmed down.

- From Rose

KARUA, MUTUA, KALONZO AND KIMUNYA – ARE LEARNED, EDUCATED OR SCHOOLED?

joluo — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:13:23 +0000

    Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:31:10 +0000 (GMT)

Could someone be very kind to help me understand this:

What is the value of education? Why should we take so much trouble to study for as long as it is practically possible? Some study for 10 years, others 14 years, 16 and for some their studies last for over 18 years. I am puzzled and tempted to drop my PhD studies if what am seeing and hearing from our ‘learned’ leaders would be the end result of my education.

Hons. Karua, Kalonzo, Kimunya and Mutua have been uttering extremely questionable statements that do not reflect the ordinary expectation of learned people. Hon. Karua is dying with the position that the law of the land must observed if the current crisis facing our beloved country is to be conclusively determined. Fair enough. But wouldn’t someone who has considerable education differentiate between following the law and following the spirit of the law? I am not a lawyer but what happened between the tallying of the presidential votes and the wearing in of Hon. Kibaki demonstrates a situation where law can be used to turn an act of injustice into a justified act under the same law. The fact that tensions were high, doubts lingered and clouds of confrontation formed at KICC, would have suggested to a learned person in matters of law that something is a miss. How then, can one trust the same custodians of law who used it to do “the right thing” to file a petition that would be chaired and challenged by the very same custodians? Is knowledge of law superior to other professions in terms of interpretation of reality? Is the invocation of law all that matters in life even when stakes are so high?

Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka has maintained that he is ‘neutral’ and only took up the VP post in order to reconcile Kenyans. I find it very difficult to place this statement in any scale of logic. What sort of knowledge is applied in this type of thinking? Is that law? And wouldn’t anyone learned realize that there are other intelligent people out there? Or are we all tomatoes to be addressed in this kind of thinking? Don’t we deserve statements reflecting that Kenyans have learned citizens?

Alfred Mutua leaves me extremely embarrased if at all, as am told, he has a PhD in media and communication. If indeed this is the case, then I must point out that he seems to have a deficiency that undermines his credibility in media. Public Relations, no matter which books Mutua read, is set on the premise that people must be given what they deserve. There isn’t any work of media that risks a person’s life except in criminal activities that undermine the common good. It is only in meeting people’s needs that one can be able to do political propaganda. Any sort of public relations utterance that demeans people, lies to people, downplays people’s feelings and frustrations, sees nothing but a losing enemy is indeed an indicator of a person who has no background whatsoever in that field. Why should ‘a learned’ person toy-play with a situation that has caused death?

Kimunya emits a degree of immaturity, which is understandble, but also absolute determination in defending a position that he doesn’t seem quite capable of grasping its consequences. He seems to fight for the short terms gains that are only too apparent in his conscious. The problem is Kenya has an inter-dependent economy that as minister for finance he should defend. I can understand if Michuki uses force to do whatever he wants because he grew up in a generation that didn’t have much education and after all he has been bossing people throughout his career. But how can young people like Kimunya be so insentive to the broader needs of all Kenyans? Is this a result of a particular system of education or is it an individual’s inborn inability to see beyond the immediate good?

The question is: Should we insist on educating people when those who are supposed to have been to have been succesfuly educated are underperforming especially at a crucial hour? Can’t we scrap education after all? What do we stand to lose?

I am aware that there are a few ODMers who have very contradictory statements but in all fairness the PNU side is worrisome in its utterances.

Elias Mokua Nyatete

Lucy Kimani, Michoma Moenga & Other Kibaki Sympathizers

joluo — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:08:26 +0000

Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:38:59 -0500

Lucy Kimani, Michoma Moenga & Other Kibaki Sympathizers

Your candidate was declared winner. He was rigged in or won with reasonable doubt, and was sworn in without ceremony. Let those who feel aggrieved mourn and cry in peace. It is this crying, mourning and free demonstration that will make us heal. You who like to be heard all the time can now advocate on our behalf at the regime to allow demonstration. What are they afraid of? Without allowing peaceful demonstration, people are still dying, can’t you see?
Today, my classmate, Okiya Okoiti Omtatah Obangonamasese chained himself in the city. He was arrested and will be charged for attempted suicide. Why? Just because he wanted to express himself, to protest. I never imagined he would get such courage.

Please, do not engage in arguments with those aggrieved at this time. Do not continue to send messages that will flare tribal animosity however smart or innocent you think you are. To do so is synonumous with fanning tribal hate, when tribal dislike is rife. The campaign period is gone, at least for now. Yes you have the right to express yourself, but is your say so important that you must have it now? Look, just like your candidate believes that certain rights need to be suppressed at this particular time, you might want to heed his call at this time. Let us resume normal debate when the bloodstream is stopped.

Perhaps it is time to be silent. Let the spirit of the Kenyan dead pass silently. Please let the healing begin with your silence.

Peace.

- Joram

Miguna Miguna’s Portrait

joluo — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:02:01 +0000

Miguna Miguna’s Portrait

By Prof. Oluoch Agola
Osaka, Japan.

I wish to respond to Arrum Tidi’s article –’Diaspora candidate Miguna Miguna is too arrogant for Nyando constituents’. In this rather slapdash article filled with untenable generalizations, Tidi makes a totally unrestrained act of character assassination bordering on juvenile recklessness!

My response is aimed at straightening numerous distortions in the article about the very person of Miguna Miguna. Let me also put it that I have no stakes in whatever little arguments and personal differences that may have occurred in the writer’s interactions with Miguna.

Tidi insinuates that Miguna played a dismal role in student politics at U of N, actually as a coward who only joined the bandwagon, and performed the lowly task of distributing free copies of the Anvil. These assertions are utter nonsense. We actually elected Miguna Miguna the SONU secretary general, and he did not disappoint us. He was a leader – period! It is undeniable that Miguna stood firmly to be counted amongst our most courageous SONU student leaders – Buke, Oyuo, and Kaberere. It is the distinguished brand of courage at a time when no one dared take on the Moi misgovernment boldly as the student leaders did in 1987 that culminated in the arrests of Miguna and other prominent SONU leaders.

For Tidi’s information, Miguna was one of the top editors of the Anvil, and not a distribution boy. Perhaps Tidi could not have been more right than if he referred to Miguna’s role in dissemination of some his ideas from articles he penned in the Anvil amongst U of N student community as a distributor boy. That would have been spot on.

Another fallacious assertion by Tidi is that Miguna joined the wave/bandwagon of students fleeing the country. There was no wave to follow – fleeing the country at that time was an ingenious act of bravery initiated by Miguna and a few of his SONU leadership mates. The cowards remained behind – endlessly toying with the possibility of
being forgiven.

Tindi also tries to strip Miguna of any minor achievements- as in education and professional life. In the eyes of others who like to give credit where it is due, the man’s achievements are worth waxing lyrical about. Tindi – you know as well as I do that one simply does not happen to continue with ones education and eventually become a lawyer, an economist, a doctor, or whatever professional classification. One must not only work hard, but must be smart as well to earn the degree, even more so with a distinction. Personally, I admire Miguna’s eloquence, command of the English language, and swiftness in summoning compelling facts in the process of any civilized discourse. I was not surprised that the disgraced ECK chairman, Kivuitu found the intellectually and physically massive man from Nyando too much to handle by logical persuasion (if you watched the stand-off between ODM frontline and ECK -PNU combined). Watching the footage, together with that Orengo Jimmy, I felt confident in ODM, that it had strong minds matched by requisite eloquence. That display of razor-sharp intellect could only send the foe reeling and uttering irrelevancies, some of which have no place in a respectable social
decorum.

I also think it was an act of humility rare in a land trampled by arrogant politicians with unbridled ambition for Miguna to accept losing the ODM nomination in Nyando, and then move on to help with the work at ODM secretariat. Countless number of aggressive, arrogant and ambitious politicians went down on record in a reckless wave of defections even to parties that most of us never heard of. In this instance, I see no arrogance and aggression, but commitment and loyalty to both ODM and its mission by Miguna.

On community commitments (to Kenyans or Luo), we all have our gifts, and thus diverse ways to serve others. I know Miguna has legally represented many Kenyans, Africans, and migrants from other distant lands – in several of them he never charged any professional fee. If someone else erected a dam, or distributed free mosquito nets, then
that would be his or her own way of serving his or her selected community. I also know it to be true that avoiding time wasting gatherings and awanya marked by unproductive conversations at each others dwellings is not a virtue. The avoidance of such does not make one a lone ranger.

On dropping the name, Joshua, I know that Miguna long started using the double surname since our secondary school days. I have serious doubts in my mind why it would take some amorphous anti-Christian group to jolt Miguna awake in his adulthood as to consciously discard a name he had the ability to discard at such a tender age of primary
school.

I am happy if it is true Miguna was sighted visiting Tuju. I am comfortable in my knowledge of Miguna having known Tuju for a long time, both personally and professionally, even before the Rarieda man made a plunge into politics. As a matter of principle one does not cut lose or avoid like lepers the people you have come to know at various capacities simply because they are on the other side of the political divide. Great minds know how to disagree in principle.

We can always have personal differences, but clutching at anything such as sordid anecdotal patchwork and deliberate distortion of your foe’s information simply is not the way to sort out things. It only serves to cast one in a pathetically negative image much worse than the foe one intended to castigate.