Kiai for probe in election fiasco

Story by KEVIN J KELLEY
Publication Date: 2/8/2008

Documented flaws in the presidential tally “rendered untenable the conclusion that Mwai Kibaki was validly elected,” Kenya’s leading human rights activist told the US Congress on Wednesday.

Mr Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, also called for an independent international investigation of the presidential election. Such an inquiry should seek to “find out who did what and why (and) who ordered it.”

Official result

His sentiments were echoed by Congressman Donald Payne, the chairman of the US House of Representatives panel that convened Wednesday’s hearing.
Mr Payne, a Democrat, pointed to “a series of highly irregular events which cast significant doubt on (Mr Kibaki’s) so-called victory.”

The congressman added: “Let me be blunt. The election results announced by the ECK do not reflect the wishes of the Kenyan people. The people of Kenya voted for change. What they were given was the status quo.”

Congressman Payne called for formation of a transitional coalition government with a mandate to oversee adoption of a new Constitution, electoral law and Electoral Commission. Kenya should then vote for a new president within two years.
Political solution

A State Department official testifying at the Wednesday inquiry said “power sharing is an essential element to a viable short-term solution for Kenya.”
But Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs James Swan stopped short of calling for new elections.

Congressman Payne was critical of the charge that some of the violence in the Rift Valley constituted “ethnic cleansing.” That comment by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer “played right into the hands of the Kibaki camp, allowing them to portray themselves as victims of an ethnic conflict,” the congressman said.

Mr Kiai took a similar view, saying “the violence is neither genocide nor ethnic cleansing.”

Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, said Mr Kibaki “probably will do everything he can to hold on to power.”


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