sent by peter okelo et.al.
Tue, 1 Jan 2008 16:33:10 +1100

FW: AN URGENT OPEN LETTER TO MR MWAI KIBAKI

Dear Kenyans Everywhere,

1. Please read and circulate by print or electronic means

2. Forward copy of letter to Kenyans, friends, and governments everywhere in the world

3. Personally take this letter to Mr Mwai Kibaki

4. Send a copy of the letter back to State House, Kenya, as your petition

E-mail: president@statehousekenya.co.ke

A Very Urgent Open letter to Mr Mwai Kibaki

Dear Mr Kibaki,

WE are writing this letter at 5.45 am in the morning (Kenya time) and hope that when you finally wake up you will have time to read a letter from fellow Kenyans.

We have chosen to write a letter rather than go marching to some US or British Embassy because we still trust and believe in the ability of Kenyans to resolve their challenges and steer their destiny as they are trying to do constitutionally through the elections. We speak of the elections in present time, not in the past, because the results are not resolved.

The initial advice by the US ambassador that “There is no choice but to… accept” evidently questionable election results too confirms to us that addressing a foreign embassy might not be the best use of our time and energy. It was only later that the US reversed its previous opinion about the election results after endorsing you as president. We are rather impatient with such complicity.

WE have therefore decided to direct OUR time and energy to addressing you as a Kenyan leader. We believe that you will need to be more honest about the situation in Kenya.

Some people may perceive OUR diplomatic approach as a sign of weakness, however, this letter is a sign of the remainder of the hope WE still have in the possibility of resolving the current situation through language not bullets, through dialogue, by way of participatory discussion with the parties concerned, namely ALL Kenyans not some Kenyans.

WE are confident that many Kenyans would find this method a much better option as they have shown through the massive participation in the historic elections; a vote is a sign, which signifies an intended meaning, an intended wish, an opinion.

Mr Kibaki, WE therefore write this letter with the hope that WE will be able to bring the following points to urgently your attention:

1. The governance of a country is not a one person or one group affair, if it so turns out to be then it is no longer governance; it is dictatorship. Not long ago you presided over (through the publicly evident mandate of majority of Kenyans) the removal of such dictatorship in 2002.

2. The power of a president is not derived from allegedly legal pronouncement and oath-taking before a witnessing handful of individuals. WE are referring to your ‘swearing in’ on 30^th of December 2007 by Justice Evans Gicheru. The legality of the ‘swearing in’ ceremony is conditional upon essential prerequisites.

3. If presidential power were to be merely derived from presupposed legal pronouncement, oath-taking, and ‘swearing in’ before a handful of witnesses then such declaration would not be so different from magical incantation.

WE trust that Kenyans would not want to elect a president through questionable ‘swearing in’ and pronouncements akin to magical incantations.

4. The legality of swearing in of a president is based on one decisive and critical factor that in essence gives you the power to be president—that factor is the ELECTORAL MANDATE and support that you should evidently have among Kenyans.

5. In a democracy, which WE believe OUR country is, the electoral support among Kenyans is in turn reflected in the number of votes that a presidential candidate receives in an irregularities-free and publicly-confirmed fair elections.

6. It is now clear that the election and therefore the supposed electoral evidence and basis upon which your ‘swearing in’ is based upon is rightly questionable—the basis being the number of votes you verifiably got.

7. This crucial matter should be addressed if your claim to presidency is to have any legitimacy before the eyes of all Kenyans and not merely before the eyes of a section of the Kenyan society that is happy to see you serve another term.

8. The final solemn plea in your ‘swearing in’ statement as you symbolically held the Bible in your right hand was, “So help me God”.

9. WE strongly believe that the credibility of your presidency would be able to stand before God only if it satisfies the crucial essential test—that the presidential authority you ask God to ‘help’ you with is derived from constitutionally and legitimately expressed mandate of your fellow human beings, of your fellow voters; the people of Kenya as a nation not a section. This mandate is expressed through publicly verified election results.

10. If the above critical precondition does not obtain, then it is credible to say that you were asking God to be bless a potentially irregular institutionalization of a power that goes against the constitutional wish of Kenyans as a nation. WE trust too that God does not bless dictatorship which your claim to presidency would turn out to be if you do not consult and sit with all parties concerned—Kenyans whom you want to lead for another five years.

11. As a devoted Christian, WE are sure you would not want to lie before God by holding the MORAL WEIGHT of God’s words in your right hand before Justice Evans Gicheru to institutionalize a potentially illegal authority. “Thou shall not lie”, the Bible you held in your right hand categorically says.

12. It is easy to see the elections as a contest between Hon Kalonzo Musyoka, Hon Raila Odinga, and Hon Mwai Kibaki. However, the elections go beyond a contest between individuals. The elections give Kenyans the constitutional chance to express their wishes regarding where they want to go for a period of time well beyond the constitutional five-year term.

13. It is equally easy to see the contest between the presidential candidates as a ‘game of numbers’. But WE must say that those ‘numbers’ are human beings, Kenyans of all tribes and backgrounds, and many of them throughout the country are clearly very unhappy with the election process because of the verifiable irregularities in the process that culminated in your ‘swearing in’ by Justice Evans Gicheru.

14. Some of those ‘numbers’ are now in the streets burning and looting out of frustration at what are irregularities in the electoral process. They had hoped and still hope that the elections are a constitutionally legitimate expression of their wishes—their dreams, their participation in steering the nation toward further development, prosperity and democracy.

15. WE must also add that your silence at a time when the election controversy was going on at KICC was and still is quite disturbing.

16. WE must also say that it is equally disturbing that when you emerged from your silence, you only did so to be sworn in as ‘president’ and never used your leadership to address the controversies about alleged rigging and irregularities. This, Mr Kibaki, is downright selfish.

17. WE have always believed that “Mr Kibaki is a gentleman”, and that if Kenyans expressed a particular wish, he would listen to that wish.

18. We are, however, having very genuine difficulties holding on to what is truly the remainder of our trust in you, and hope that through that very magical gift that all human beings have regardless of nationality, race or tribe, we as Kenyans can still resolve the matter at hand and stop the ‘numbers’ in the streets from burning and looting and rampaging. Please do not let another five-year term (‘Kibaki tena’) blind your decision-making.

19. Mr Kibaki the gift we are referring to is called language (not bullets) and consultative, participatory communication. Please exercise your power of leadership and invite all parties concerned to resolve this matter. Those parties concerned are ALL KENYANS as a nation not a section. We know Kenyans, we are part of the Kenyan society, and know that they will listen and help turn this situation around again. Yes, Kenya could turn out to much better than we ever imagined.

20. We are therefore, in OUR capacity as a Kenyans, appealing to you, as one of us, a Kenyan, to involve all the parties concerned and arrive at a decision that is acceptable to all Kenyans and not just acceptable to a section of the society that would like to see you be president again for another five years.

21. WE are not thinking about the next five years, we look at our children and think about the next 40 years, and beyond.

22. Finally, Mr Kibaki, remember that the symbolic and MORAL weight of the Bible you held in your hand during the ‘swearing in’ is much greater than you, greater than any presidency. Therefore any claims made holding the holy book should be truthful, evidently truthful.

23. The election results that saw you holding the Bible to swear and take oath are not proven truthful.

24. Therefore exercise positive leadership, avert the death and destruction gripping the nation as we speak, as we write. Invite the main opposition leader Raila Odinga and all concerned to dialogue and work out a mutual plan that is acceptable to all Kenyans as a nation not a section. WE believe that this is the hope of all Kenyans.

25. We wish you a new vision of the Kenyan society and politics that is characterized by participatory communication (not indifferent or strategic silence), consultation, transparency and compromise with the constitutional will of Kenyans as a nation and not as section.

Yours most sincerely,

VERY DISTRESSED, TORMENTED AND CONCERNED KENYANS

(Munyao, Githinji, and Okelo )