Kisumu 30th June 2008
 
KIVUITU SHOULD SHOULER THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DEATHS OF CLOSE TO 1,000 INNOCENT KENYANS

Commentary by Leo Odera Omolo
 
IN the early 1980 and late 1990 the churches in Kenya, especially the Catholic and the Anglican, the two most powerful religions in this country were outspoken and took bold steps against injustice.
 
But the two influences churches in the country have maintained total silency against the ongoing slaughter and extra judicial killings in Kenya today. .
 
This is the hour when Kenyan needs a brave and principled Bishop who should stand and be counted
 
No wonder even Mr. Emilio Mwai Kibaki the man who is fragrantly, illegitimately and fraudulently sitting at the state house pretending to have won the presidential election which in actual sense he did not win at all, he said to be a staunched member of Catholic church !!.
 
In 1992, as the nation reeled from tribal skirmishes in parts  of the Rift Valley the churches especially Catholic and Anglican, were bold and unsparring then. It was at the time when what was then referred as “Land clashes ” spreading like bushfire from the Rift Valley, Nyanza, Coast and Western Provinces. And the Catholic Church confronted then President Moi with cruel facts.
 
In May 1992 the late Maurice Cardinal Otunga in the company of other Catholic prelates visited Moi at Estate House and told him to his face that the wananchi had lost faith in him and his government.
 
But in the current political impasses the head of Catholic Church in Kenya Cardinal John Njue appeared not to be sufficiently neutral. The Cardinal impartiality was seen in his numerous political utterances in the pre-election period, when he came out bold and hard on the ODM leadership. He openly supported re-election of President Kibaki to the chagrins of the church followers.
 
As a good Catholic I have lost my faith in the Church under Cardinal Njue’s leadership in the same way I have also detacted the utterances of other Bishops whose comments on religion. Matters are all hell-bent on politics. The political Bishops have no business hiding their tribal hatred towards the leadership of a certain community behind the pulpit..
 
The on-going political stalemate will be placed squarely at the doorsteps of the chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) Mr. Samuel Kivuitu.
 
Kivuitu was mandated to deliver a tree, fair and transparent election to the people of Kenya He and his commission had 5 years to prepare for the job. But instead he messed up with the election results.
 
The ECK has a tremendous pool of resources, skills, technical support, to draw on, including the experience and advice of his peers in the field leaders and exports in governance, Human Rights Electoral process and Constitutional Law.
 
Kivuitu has the trust of the 37 million Kenyans when the country as a whole has chosen the path and spoke through ballot papers em masses. This is the reason why, a record 65 per cent of the registered voters rose as early as 4 am on December 27 to vote.
 
Kenyans stood in lines for up to 10 hours in the blistering sun, without food, drink, toilet facilities. And as the results began filtering back they enthusiastically cheered when big names started tumbling. Minister after minister who includes the most powerful individuals lost their parliamentary seats.
 
The most encouraging results were those from the Rift valley province where the voters had categorically rejected the three sons of Daniel Arap Moi, the despot who looted Kenya for 24 years.
 
Kenyans had then spoken through the ballot, en masses against the mind- blowling greed, corruption, human rights abuses, callous dismissal and exploitation of the Kenya’s poor that have characterized the Kibaki administration. The call for meaningful change became clear and loud. 
 
But Kibaki wasn’t going to go. When it become clear that Mr. Kivuitu was announcing vote tallies that differed sharply from those counted and confirmed in the constituencies and the figures counter- signed by the agents of the competing parties, there was also the incident of a sudden power black- out at the Kenyatta International Conference centre, where the returns were being announced.
 
Contingent of GSU (General Service Unit) paramilitary police suddenly marched in!!. All the representative of media houses, both local and international were ejected of the venue except the government mouthpiece, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation ( KBC).
 
And strangely enough fifteen minutes later, Kenyan watched dumbfolded, as Mr. Kivuitu declared Mr. Kibaki the winner. And 30 minutes later Kenyan watched in sickened disbelief and outrage, as the chairman of the ECK handed the victory certificate to Mr. Kibaki on the lawns of State House where the Chief Justice, strangely enough has already arrived and was readily waiting while fully robed, to hurriedly swear him in!!!.
 
Surely Mr. Kivuitu you betrayed Kenyans. Perhaps they’ll never know when, or why, the chairman of the ECK made that decision. One rumours claims Mr. Kivuitu was threatened with execution of his entire family. If he did not name Kibaki as presidential victor. When we heart it, we hoped it was true. Because at least we could understand why he chose instead to plunge our country into civil war.
 
Kenyans, however don’t believe this rumour anymore. Not since Mr. Kivuitu appeared on TV looking tormented, sounding confused, contradicting himself, saying among other things, that did not resign because he “ did not want” the country to call him coward” but he was able to state with certainty that Kibaki won the election”.
 
And following that with the baffling statement “there are those around him (Kibaki) who should never have been born” the camera operator has a sense of irony the camera shifted several times to the scroll on his wall that read “Help me Jesus!”.
 
As the Kenyan chapter of the international Jurists rescinded the jurists award of the year bestowed on Mr. Kivuitu, as The law society of Kenya ( LSK) strikes his name from their roll of honours and disbars him, one may be left wondering about what goes through Mr. Kivuitu mind these days!!.
 
Does Mr. Kivuitu really think of the 500,000 Kenyan displaced from their homes, their lives?.
 
Of the thousands still trapped in police stations, churches, any refuge they confined across the country? Without food, water, toilet, blankets and shelter?
 
Crops in fields ready for harvest razed to the ground? Of granaries filled with rotting grain, because no one can get to them? Of Nairobi slums residents of Kibera, Mathare, Huruma, Dandora ringed by GSU personnel and regular police, denied exit routes of access to medical treatment and emergency relief for the crime of being poor Kenya?
 
As the result of Mr. Kibaki’s cowardice actions Kenyan has plunged into a distasteful state of anarchy. This country will never be the same again.
 
The blood of the close to 1000 innocent Kenyan who perished in the chaos followed should be placed in the doorstep of Mr. Kivuitu and a few Kikuyu hardliners who masterminded the rigging of presidential voters.
 
ENDS
 
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com