Infighting hobbles Kenyan poll process
KENYA is running out of time to ensure a credible rerun of presidential elections that were annulled by the nation’s top court after the main opposition party alleged they were rigged.
With the next vote due in just five weeks, the electoral commission is mired in infighting over who should take the fall for last month’s botched contest.
Demands by former prime minister Raila Odinga, 72, and his National Super Alliance that sweeping changes be made to the commission, including the removal of its chief executive, Ezra Chiloba, have also placed them at loggerheads with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s ruling Jubilee Party.
“As things stand now, most of the people who ran the August 8 elections are still in office, and the system that they used has not been changed,” said Peter Wayande, a politics professor at the University of Nairobi. “As long as that remains the case, one cannot expect credible elections.
“If things are not done right, there will definitely be a crisis that will result in political instability.”
While Kenyatta accepted the ruling, he has criticised the decision by calling the judges “crooks” and saying he plans to “fix” the court if he is re-elected.
He also threatened to impeach Odinga if the opposition leader wins, using the ruling Jubilee Party’s parliamentary majority.
Odinga’s alliance alleged that computer systems were tampered with and vote tallies were altered to ensure the re-election of Kenyatta, 55, last month.
On September 1, the Supreme Court ruled that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission “failed, neglected or refused to conduct the election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution”.
It has yet to release its detailed findings. Former Kenyan justice minister Martha Karua has asked the High Court to invalidate the outcome of the entire election, including the gubernatorial, senatorial and parliamentary votes, the Nairobi-based Star newspaper reported.
Wafula Chebukati, the commission’s chairman, said the body was committed to holding a lawful vote and had replaced six of its top managers, including the heads of operations, information technology and the national tallying centre.
The managers who mishandled the previous election refused to resign.
On September 5 Chebukati wrote to Chiloba asking him why a computer user-name had been created in his name without his consent and to explain the failure of the election results transmission system and other hitches during the initial vote.
Four commissioners said on September 7 that the electoral body hadn’t sanctioned the letter, and that most of the issues raised by the chairman “are not factual”. – Bloomberg