Kenyans For Peace, Truth, Justice

Contacts:

Linda Ochiel, Kenya National Commission for Human Rights
+ 254 722 583200, lochiel@knchr.org

Shailja Patel, Kenyans for Peace, Truth, Justice
+ 254 734 669020, shailja@shailja.com

We speak in the name of Kenya's governance, human rights and legal organizations, as well as the concerned citizens who have contacted and chosen to work with us over the last week.

We strongly condemn the violence that has erupted across the country following the questionable outcomes of the counting and tallying done under the electoral process. We express our deepest sympathy to all those who have been injured, raped or killed, those who have lost property, those who have been internally displaced as well as those who continue to live in fear. We are only too acutely aware that the survivors and victims continue to be those with the most to lose from the violence as well as those who least deserve to experience it—Kenya's impoverished women and men in both low-income urban areas as well as in rural areas.

We are aware that the violence experienced has taken three primary forms. First, disorganized protest at the supposed results of the presidential tally. Second, instigated and organized militia activity particularly in the Rift Valley, but also through the re-activation of Mungiki in Central and Nairobi and, now,Chinkororo in Nyanza. And third, extraordinary use of force by Kenya's Police Force and General Service Unit to the extent of extrajudicial executions violating the most fundamental of freedoms and human rights—the rights to life and the safety and security of persons. We strongly condemn all three forms.

We note that the violence experienced is being used to legitimize the curtailing of the most basic of freedoms and human rights—the freedoms of expression, assembly and association. These freedoms and human rights are guaranteed by international law, regional law and our own Constitution. They must be upheld at all times—especially as the exercise of these freedoms and human rights is the only way for Kenyans to legally and legitimately express their protest at the alleged presidential outcome of the electoral process. We believe that the repression and suppression of legal and legitimate forms of protest can only perpetuate further violence.

It is also clear to us that, at the heart of the violence now being experienced, is a violation of other fundamental freedoms and rights directly related to the electoral processes. It is clear that the electoral anomalies and malpractices experienced during the counting and tallying of our electoral process were so grave as to alter its outcomes. Some of those electoral anomalies and malpractices were, in addition, illegal—thus rendering the supposed presidential outcome not only illegitimate but also illegal. We therefore consider Mwai Kibaki to be in office still on his first term.

Our hope lies in Kenyans standing up against the travesty that has been made of the electoral process. Our hope lies in Kenyans who have, at great personal risk, and without regard to ethnicity, on principle provided security, shelter and safe passage to those Kenyans targeted by the militia activity in the Rift Valley and elsewhere. We note the domestic humanitarian efforts coordinated by the National Council of Churches of Kenya with statistical support from the Catholic Relief Services—efforts to which many individual Kenyans and Kenyan businesses have now associated themselves. We note too the domestic peace initiatives being worked on by Amani Focus, the 'Ibrahim group' (including Ambassador Kiplagat and General Sumbweiyo) and Peacenet. And we now invite other concerned citizens to join the 'peace through truth and justice' efforts being carried out by domestic governance, human rights and legal organizations.

In particular, we would like to call on:

1. All efforts and initiatives to consistently stress that peace cannot and will not be achieved without electoral truth and justice;

2. All Kenyans to stand up to be counted not just for peace but also for electoral truth and justice;

3. The state to respect and uphold the rights to the freedoms of expression, assembly and association so as to ensure Kenyans protest only legally, legitimately and non-violently;

4. All politicians and political parties to immediately desist from the re-activation, support and use of militia organizations such as those active in the Rift Valley, Mungiki and Chinkororo;

5. The Ministry of Internal Security, the Police Force and the General Service Unit to exercise their duties within the boundaries of the Constitution and the law and desist from any extraordinary use of force and, in particular, extrajudicial executions;

6. The Electoral Commission of Kenya to immediately resign for having participated in and condoned a presidential electoral process so flawed as to result in our nation's current crisis;

7. African states and the rest of the international community to pressurize for mediation between the Party of National Unity and the Orange Democratic Movement on addressing the electoral travesty that has occurred;

8. The mediation process to, as its first priority, agree upon an interim electoral oversight body to conduct a forensic audit into the polling, counting and tallying process with a view to recommending, depending on its findings, a re-count, a re-tallying or a re-run within a specified time period;

9. African states and the rest of the international community to, in the interim, deny official recognition to the man sworn in as President;

10. African states and the rest of the international community to immediately revoke any and all visas for any and all of the PNU's and ODM's leadership—as well as all of their immediate family members—to ensure they remain in this country to resolve the electoral travesty that has occurred;

11. The man sworn in as President to desist from announcing a Cabinet and otherwise aggravating and inflaming the current violence.

Signed:

Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG)
Awaaz
Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION)
Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD)
Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness for Women (CREAW)
(CRADLE)
Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO)
East African Law Society (EALS)
Haki Focus
Hema la Katiba
Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU)
Innovative Lawyering
Institute for Education in Democracy (IED)
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya)
Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
Kenya Leadership Institute (KLI)
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)
Kituo cha Sheria
Media Institute
Muslim Human Rights Forum
National Constitution Executive Council (NCEC)
Society for International Development (SID)
Urgent Action Fund (UAF)-Africa
Youth Agenda
Law Society of Kenya
Release Political Prisoners
International Centre for Policy and Conflict
Safer World

Kenyan Electoral Crisis: Press Statement

For Immediate Release
Nairobi, December 31st, 2007

It is now widely acknowledged that the electoral process that led to the swearing-in of Mwai Kibaki was heavily flawed and devoid of credibility.

We, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNHCR), artists, and civil society groups in Kenya, believe that this flawed process precipitated the tidal wave of brutal violence and senseless destruction of property sweeping parts of the country.

We are concerned that the violence seems targeted at innocent Kenyans from particular communities believed to be sympathetic to a particular party. Everyone has a right to vote for whomever they wish. Whereas we understand the disappointment, frustration and anger Kenyans feel at being disenfranchised, their anger needs to be channelled responsibly, and without resort to violence.

The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) handled the elections tallying process irresponsibly. ECK is squarely culpable for the crisis in the country, through its intransigence, careless statements, incompetence and lack of accountability.

The ECK had the opportunity to initiate dialogue between various stakeholders to salvage the situation. Despite pleas from credible national and international observers, and evidence presented to verify claims of rigging, among other electoral malpractices, ECK commissioners chose not to engage in this prudent course of action.

We express our disappointment and deep concern that despite every gain made in expanding democratic space in Kenya, a country governed by the rule of law, the former Minister for Internal Security, John Michuki, banned the press from live broadcasts. We question the constitutional legitimacy and legal basis of Mr. Michuki's decree. From which statute or legal instrument does he draw his powers to ban the media in this manner, considering that the president has yet to constitute a Government, and, therefore a cabinet?

Furthermore, such a decree contravenes accepted international standards that guarantee freedom of expression and access to information, both fundamental rights. By muzzling the media, a key source of information to the public, the Government is encouraging rumors, innuendo, hearsay and suspicion, in an already polarized country.

We note Mwai Kibaki's earlier gesture calling on Kenyans to reconcile. Reconciliation can only be genuine if there is truth. We urge that:

1)The ECK discloses to the public the full presidential tally results, to be compared to results documented by national and international observers

2)The Government lift the media ban prohibiting the media from live coverage in Kenya.

3) Those with information on election fraud or irregularities be offered platforms to make such information public, without threat of intimidation. In this regard, whistleblowers may contact:

Hotline number: 0728 606582
Send verifiable information by email to:

lochiel@knchr.org
linakoth9@yahoo.com
lkabiru@khrc.or.ke

We appeal to the international community to call for credible verification of the results before endorsing them. We note the EU observer mission has raised serious concerns about the reliability and credibility of the elections tallying process.

We appeal to the police and security agencies to ensure their responses are humane, measured, and proportional to the level of threat. We call on them to handle the situation with utmost caution, while ensuring the security of all without taking sides.

Signed:

Maina Kiai, Chair, KNCHR
Gladwell Otieno, AFRICOG
Mugambi Kiai, OSIEA
Betty Kaari Murungi, Vice-Chair, KHRC
Njeri Kabebeberi, CMD
David Ndii, KLI
Haruon Ndubi, Haki Focus
Zahid Rajan, Awaaz
Muthoni Wanyeki, KHRC

An online petition

has been created by Fahamu and Pambazuka News, calling for urgent resolution of the Kenyan electoral crisis.

Please click HERE to read and sign it. And then forward, forward, forward.........It really matters. We need to build up a critical mass of pressure on Kibaki, from within and outside the country.

murder of Kenyan democracy

My country is in flames, following the blatant theft of our national elections by incumbent Mwai Kibaki..

An election with record voter turnout, where people stood in lines for up to 10 hours, in the sun, without food, drink, toilet facilities, to vote. Where Kenyans threw 16 powerful ministers out of office, voted en masse against the mindblowing greed, corruption, human rights abuses, callous dismissal of the country's poor, that have characterised the Kibaki administration.

But Kibaki wasn't going to go. When it became clear that the Election Commission of Kenya (ECK) was announcing vote tallies that differed from those counted, hundreds of GSU soldiers(General Service Unit, used by the government for security and crowd control)suddenly marched into the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, where the returns were being announced. Ejected all media except the government mouthpiece Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.

Fifteen minutes later, we watched, dumbfounded, as the ECK chair, Samuel Kivuitu, declared Kibaki the winner. 30 minutes later, we watched in nauseated disbelief and outrage as Mwai Kibaki was hurriedly sworn in on the lawns of State House, in a ceremony that had clearly been planned well in advance.

A ban has been imposed on all live media broadcasts. Curfews slammed onto Mombasa and Kisumu, Kenya's second and third-largest cities. In Nairobi, the city centre is cordoned off by the military. Armed GSU surround Uhuru Park, where the opposition ODM party had called a giant protest rally. Across the country, homes and businesses are being torched, the poorest people attacked and killed, by voters on rampage who have lost their last shred of hope in their power to make change peacefully.

We're all in varying stages of shock, grief, outrage, mourning. Indescribable sadness, was what one friend texted me this morning. I feel sick, said another.

From Muthoni Wanyeki, Executive Director of Kenya's Human Rights Commission, this text message yesterday:

They did it. First through attempts to disenfranchise Luo voters in Nairobi, and finally by manipulating figures. We need a detailed, rigorous, collective response, to express our anger and pain at how voters have been betrayed, and Kenya diminished, shamed, before the rest of Africa and the world.

Remember how we felt in 2002? It's all gone.

Equally sickening is the way Britain and the US have accepted the outcome of an indisputably flawed election, and actually congratulated Mwai Kibaki on his "re-election". Thank god, though, for the European Union Election Observation Mission, who issued the following statement:

Once again,, we would like to commend Kenyan citizens for the strong commitment to peace and democracy that they showed on election day.

With a view to the presidential elections, however, we believe that, at this time, the ECK....has not succeeded in establishing the credibility of the tallying process to the satisfaction of all parties and candidates. We regret that it has not been possible to address irregularities about which both the EU EOM and the ECK have evidence. The result for the Molo constituency, for example, was announced in the presence of the EU EOM Observers at the constituency tally center as 50,145 votes for President Kibaki, while the ECK today declared the result for the President to be 75,261 votes. Because of this and other observed irregularities, some doubt remains as to the accuracy of the result of the presidential election as announced today.

We call on the leaders of Kenya to maintain this spirit of peace and democracy so admirably shown by the people of Kenya on Thursday.

And the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Bernier:

The commitment demonstrated by the citizens of Kenya to the democratic process is commendable. However, Canada is very concerned about incidents of violence, and by irregularities in the post-election process and the response by Kenyan authorities.

Canada urges all Kenyans to exercise calm and restraint.

We urge the government of Kenya to exhibit a steadfast commitment to the democratic principles, including respect for the integrity of the electoral process and for the human rights of all Kenyans.

The suspension of live broadcasts, irregularities in the reporting of results, and any move to restrict legitimate scrutiny of election results are of serious concern. Furthermore, it is critical that election irregularities be addressed in a timely, transparent and thorough manner.

I'm typing this in the offices of the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights. We've just held a meeting of Kenyan activists and human rights organizations to talk through the crisis we're in, and formulate a response. Press release under construction..........