How Kenya polls were messed up

By: Tabu Butagira

[ Posted On: 2008-01-03 ]

Electoral Commission boss not sure of winner

The heavy cloud hovering Kenya's future has been further darkened by the Chairman of Electoral Commission (ECK) Samuel Kivuitu who admitted that he is not sure whether incumbent Mwai Kibaki actually won last week's presidential elections.

The hitherto generally respected Kivuitu was responding to a journalist's question on Tuesday night:

Journalist: Do you believe that Mwai Kibaki fairly won the election?

Kivuitu: I don't know. That is until I see the original records which I can't for now unless the court authorises. What we have are records of results from field officers. The Kenyan elections were gravely muddled when the final tally announced by ECK failed to match what opposition parties and election observers had.

The European Union observer team and local observers have already added their voices to those dismissing the results which saw Mr Kibaki announced winner and hurriedly sworn in at a ceremony only attended by some government officials.

In its preliminary report released on Tuesday, the EU said there was a staggering mismatch between recorded vote counts at polling stations and what the ECK officially divulged at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in the capital Nairobi.

"Whilst the results of election were announced, the official figures for all the constituencies are still not available and adequate measures have not been taken at all levels to ensure the results can be correlated in the public domain," the report said.

Daily Monitor investigations also indicate that ECK officials overlooked the fact that Kenyan police personnel deployed to guard all the 36,000 polling stations countrywide also kept a record of the voting and compiled an accurate record of the results, so that even if something happened to the ECK structures, the Kenya Police is in position to give the nation correct results of the polls. Sources say that the Kenya Police tally indicates a major difference from what the ECK announced.

The most disputed results were those from 72 constituencies where the authentic ballot counts on declaration forms duly signed by Returning Officers (ECK) and agents of the various candidates are allegedly different from the figures released at the national tally centre.

Ol Kalou constituency that had 102, 000 registered voters for instance, compilation of polling station ballot counts, according to agents, evince that Mr Kibaki got 72, 000 votes while Mr Odinga trailed with 5,000.

But ECK announced that Mr Kibaki had obtained a net 102,000 votes at the very constituency where the Electoral body reported a voter turn out of 99 percent or 100, 980 voters! Additionally, results from many of the 72 constituencies were allegedly gathered by central ECK officials on phone instead of physical collections; a lapse that observers say could have resulted into inadvertent erroneous recording or deliberate alterations since.

Mr Kivuitu says he is yet to see the original documents. But the most startling claim, however, is that whereas the ECK was to keep in each constituency file several forms, including Number 16 for totals and 16(a) for detailed ballot counts per polling station, for the contested 72 constituencies, the electoral body only has total results and not duly-endorsed result declaration forms from individual stations.

The European Union said in its provisional report that result forms for Lari and Kandara had been distorted while at Kerugoya, 10, 000 more people at the same station voted in the presidential polls than in the parliamentary elections held simultaneously.

In Molo, the figure released at the counting hall indicated President Kibaki had pocketed 50,145 votes but the ECK gave him a higher figure of 75,261. Also, the constituency-level presidential vote tally released in Kieni showed Mr Kibaki had received 54,337 votes, while the national figures announced by ECK said he instead garnered 72,054.

Mr Alexander Lambsdorff, the EU Chief Election observer who called for forensic audit of the disputed results, said trouble started after completion of voting when international observers were chased from polling stations, especially in the Central Province and denied access to the central tallying centre in Nairobi.

"It is also up to Kenyans to decide what action they will take based on the outcome of the investigations. Our job is to let the facts speak for themselves," he said.

Other "serious inconsistencies and anomalies" cited in the 15-page interim report included the disappearance of some Returning Officers before public declaration of votes; ballot tallies in darkness and denial of results to agents of rival candidates.

The French Embassy in Uganda, on behalf of the EU has urged influential political figures in the current debacle to restrain their supporters and pursue dialogue to end the colossal mayhem arising from the alleged vote count irregularities. It expressed its “sorrow at the loss of life” and called for maximum restraint in a statement issued yesterday.

Britain yesterday led a pack of western nations to issue travel advisories to its citizens - tourists or otherwise - from moving into the restive Kenya; Both the UK - Kenya’s former colonial power - and the US have denounced results of the Thursday elections, which handed victory to Mr Kibaki as "incredible" and called for judicial review of the electoral impasse.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author(s): Tabu Butagira and Jeff Otieno -- are reporters for The Daily Monitor, Uganda's leading leading news publisher.

| View Profile & All Articles By: Tabu Butagira |

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