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Response from Samuel Kivuitu
At the beginning of this year, I wrote an Open Letter to Samuel Kivuitu, Chair of the Electoral Commission of Kenya. It was picked up by a number of sources, online and off, within and outside Kenya, and widely distributed, forwarded, and republished. On May 14th, Samuel Kivuitu spoke, for the first time since "The Crisis", at a forum on Post-Election Violence in Nairobi. I arrived early at the venue, and slipped a paper copy of my Open Letter under the blotter where he was going to sit. I'd abridged and updated the letter to reflect our current Kenyan reality. It ends with a plea: It’s not too late, Mr. Kivuitu. To recover your own humanity. To open your eyes to the suffering and longing of this nation. To admit that something went terribly wrong. If you could only rise to the desperate need of this turning point in Kenya’s history, you could redeem yourself with the simplest of words:
“I’m sorry.”
Those words might be the most revolutionary ever spoken on this continent. They might open the floodgates for every leader, every public servant, to acknowledge their own deep fear, grief, and remorse. To admit fallibility. To take responsibility.
We are still waiting, Mr. Kivuitu, for you to speak.During the forum, I watched Mr. Kivuitu bluster, blame, deny all culpability for the stolen election that took Kenya to the brink of civil war. In the plenary, I stood up, heart pounding, and said: Mr Kivuitu, the whole country, from IDPs (internally displaced persons) in camps to affluent residents of Karen and Mountain View, are waiting for the tiniest expression of remorse, regret, from the Electoral Commission of Kenya. As a human being, a Kenyan, can you find it in your heart to offer just three words: "We are sorry," to the people of Kenya? He couldn't. Five days later, this arrived in my inbox: To: Shailja Patel shailja@shailja.com
From: S. M. Kivuitu skivuitu@nbnet.co.ke
Date: 19 May 2008
Dear Madam,
I thank you for your letter dated 14 May 2008 and the concerns you expressed therein.
The Holy Bible has taught me to leave judgment of others to God the Almighty. I do not know if you are the Almighty God or not but you did not seem to be Him when I saw you on 14 May 2008.
You are all the same entitled to your views. I however humbly deny any wrong doing. The laws require that I declare the winner of the presidential elections once the Commission determines the candidate who scored highest, and led 25% of votes cast in his/her favour in 5 provinces. That is all I did. And there was no other candidate or his/her agent seeking me to hold on and re tally – no. After announcing the results a fellow appeared before me and requested me to hand over to him the president's certificate. I told him that that is only done to the winner personally and directly.
The fellow then informed me that Hon. Kibaki was awaiting to be sworn as the President and the Chief Justice was present, duly robed, for the assignment. He requested me to take the certificate there. I had no business retaining the certificate. It was not mine. The law says it be given at the place the President is to be sworn. I obeyed the law and took it there. Commissioners do not count votes.
Commissioners do not tally counted results. They simply verify these. They do this through the Commissioners' senior officers whose competence and integrity you seem to recognize. Commissioners announce the results as presented to them by these officers. Or what else do you suggest they should have done?
My conscience is absolutely clear. I know how dangerous it is to delay announcing the results. There are several interests in the results and all are equally important. I was hurt in 2002 for not announcing results which I had not yet received. I am not a seer, like you seem to be, to be sure that there would have not been deaths if I postponed the announcement of the results.
With my humblest view I do not share the view that people killed others, or destroyed the properties belonging to others, on account of my announcement of the winner. I believe that irrespective of whoever of the two top candidates won, there was going to be violence. That environment was created by the politicians themselves. You seem however to worship them as deities. Secondly, I respectfully believe the killers, who had been already charged with rhetoric, reasoned thus – why did Kibaki or Kalonzo get these votes in our areas? They looked round and saw Kikuyus, Kambas and other "madoadoas" (1)(as they had been told to call them). They reasoned these where the ones who voted thus and they must eliminate them.
Even in poor Coast, suspected "wrong" voters were ordered to pronounce certain words. Once they did not do so like the locals, they were violently evicted and robbed of their properties and raped. Thus the genesis of the tragedy is in our dirty politics and negative ethnicity. It is bad luck we have kind people like you who are too naïve to realize the depth of our malaise. No wonder facile and dishonest assignments that Hassan Omar (2)advanced thrilled some of you. This confirms Kenya is in for hard time for a long while to come.
Have a nice day Ms. Patel.
S. M. Kivuitu
(1) Madoadoa - spots (Kiswahili) (2) Hassan Omar Hassan, Commissioner of the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights, condemned Kivuitu and the Electoral Commission of Kenya as delinquent in their duties, at the May 14th forum on Post-Election Violence.
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5 Comments:
Well done Shailja:
Even though you never got a jot of contrition from Mr. Kivuitu you've succeeded where others have failed and extracted as near a statement of what Kivuitu did wrong in these sentences from him -
"The laws require that I declare the winner of the presidential elections once the Commission determines the candidate who scored highest, and led 25% of votes cast in his/her favour in 5 provinces. That is all I did. And there was no other candidate or his/her agent seeking me to hold on and re tally – no. After announcing the results a fellow appeared before me and requested me to hand over to him the president's certificate. I told him that that is only done to the winner personally and directly.
The fellow then informed me that Hon. Kibaki was awaiting to be sworn as the President and the Chief Justice was present, duly robed, for the assignment. He requested me to take the certificate there. I had no business retaining the certificate. It was not mine. The law says it be given at the place the President is to be sworn. I obeyed the law and took it there."
We all watched television and saw the "working environment" at KICC on December 30th 2007 - with the tallying centre taken over by force by the forces of the President & Commander in Chief (incidentally the same candidate to whom Kivuitu delivered the "winner's" certificate that fateful evening) - and the unprecedented eviction of all agents of Kibaki's opponents (who may have rightfully demanded a tally hold etc...) from the Electoral Commission's presence - so no surprise the only "fellow" who appeared looking for a certificate was Kibaki's agent.
Mr. Kivuitu omits to mention the 24 hour cooling off period provided for in Kenyan law to allow objections. He also won't recall the curious presence at the KICC (after the eviction of the press and agents) of a certain Minister and an Assistant Minister who just happened (as Kivuitu says he did) to make it to State House in time for the secretly organised swearing in 6pmish on the 30th December 2007.
It's all there in the television footage. Take a look and tell me are you watching a civilan coup or an election?
CLIPS AT - http://www.marsgroupkenya.org/pages/stories/election07/
In the hallowed tradition of past Kenyan public officials who always assume the ostrich position, Mr. Kivuitu's only defence for his dereliction of duty and complete surrender to the manipulations of one of the presidential candidates, appears to be that pro forma the ECK did a sterling job in delivering Kenyans to the inevitable consequences of our bigoted passions. 'what's it got to do with me? - all this talk about people died, people became IDPs - I DID MY JOB"
Mr. Kivuitu is a public officer and responds to you as such. For once he is doing his job. His correspondence with you should be made as public as possible, and I would urge that you have it placed on the permanent record of the Kriegler Commission as soon as possible.
Kivuitu pulled the trigger - this is my fervent belief.
Very well done for getting him to speak!
I think kivuitu is damn arrogant and not apologetic.He wants to make a joke where it is not appropriate.To me this piece is like a comical script drafted by Kivuitu.
Does he think that we lacked such scripts?Or he thinks we need to laugh and be joyous on his brutal actions.I even doubt the Bible he reads if he can't be fair in his actions.
To be frank and truthful.The good book says,truth shall set you free.
Kivuitu is not free because he never says the truth.
Let Kivuitu know that Kenyans want him to be answerable before he is found innocent,but largely he is guilty and everyone saw that.
Why should Kenya have the Kivuitus to accelerate killing us when we are trying to deal with criminals.
Mr. Kivuitu with due respect stand up as the criminal and we bring you to the book plus your other....
Shailja, I watched you on NTV this morning and the presenter's words as the program ended "... What are YOU [the viewer] doing about your opinions?" really got to my very soul. True, after the elections many of us watched the news with growing alarm at how fast some parts of the country disintegrated. I was even more heartbroken when my daughter started having nightmares after what she saw on tv... she's 4 years old. I see some truth in Kivuitu's response to you... that regardless of whoever was announced as the winner of the elections, there'd have been bloodshed.. and that scares me. This morning you said that a bunch of old men want to own the country... sadly, thats true and we must start to view ourselves as the employers of these politicians and demand that they work for us. Thanks Shailja for being the rallying voice.
Shailja-
Congratulations and keep it up! Kivuitu blames 'dirty politics' and forgets he is playing th same in his response to you! I will never forget the sight of Kivuitu ignoring all pleas of reason, and telling off those who wanted a little chance to be heard, saying that the courthouse was only a block away! Blood is certainly in his hands and the more he refuses to acknowledge it, seeking all the time to be tried by 'competent' institutions, the more you see how this bible-quoting flop has lost it. Today you spoke of old men (hippos) taking over the country. It is a chellenge to young people (cheetahs) to be innovative and take charge. I keep telling children not to trust their grandies who keep telling them they are the leaders of tomorrow...I warn them that they used the same lie on us while fortifying their positions. We are actually the leaders of Now and ALL THE TIME!
Keep up the spirit and thanks for taking the groundbreaking steps.
Best,
-Madiang'.
I tried to watch the news clips and couldn't because they have been banned. Looking further I found that the media was told to suspend broadcasts regarding Kenya election. WoW guess that tells me something isn't honest and above board.... My congratulations to Shailja for all her hard work and effort getting this story out; and my deep sadness and respect to the people of Kenya!
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