Kenyan Diaspora in USA Under KPM Petitions The Trump Administration To Intervene On Kenya’s Repeat Presidential Election Row

KENYAN DIASPORA IN THE USA UNDER KENYA PATRIOTIC MOVEMENT PETITIONS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO INTERVENE IN ON KENYA’S REPEAT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ROW!
As Kenyan Americans under the banner of a lobby group called Kenya Patriotic Movement (KEPAM) (www.kepam254.org we are a worried lot about the tension that is piling up in our mother country following the annulment of a Presidential election held on August 8th.

The ghosts of the post-election violence of 2007/2008 are fresh in our memories.
A repeat of the same will completely undermine Kenya’s peace, ruin investor confidence, hurt the tourism sector and even endanger the wellbeing of the diplomatic community in the country. Remember, Kenya is home to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as well as the United Nations centre for human settlement (Habitat). This makes the country the only developing country with a high caliber UN office.

We’re therefore appealing to the US government through Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, to put pressure on the Kenyan government and the country’s electoral body (IEBC) to agree and implement minimum reforms before a repeat Presidential election is held. This is the surest way to ensure that the exercise is free, fair and credible.

A stolen election catalyzed massive violence in 2007/2008 which made Kenyans kill each other. The same is likely to happen again if contingency measures are not put in place to avert it.
The Supreme Court annulled the Presidential election on September 1st where it cited massive irregularities and illegalities. The faction of the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta is beating war drums by accusing the Supreme Court’s ruling in favour of the opposition leader Raila Odinga. The political opposition which won the court petition for the election annulment wants minimum electoral reforms so that there will be a level playing field in the Presidential contest.

Note that, the country is currently polarized. Politicians from the ruling side and opposition side are all charged up. Tension is high especially in urban centres.
The current Kenyan government is afraid of reforms since it could have been a beneficiary of the bungled election annulled on September 1st. The electoral body is coerced by the incumbent to let the status quo remain. Regular citizens are afraid.

The diplomats fear for their safety. Foreign investors are ambivalent to pursue or increase investment in Kenya. Also, Kenya boarders the volatile Somalia region, which is home to Al-Shabaab terrorist group who may take advantage of the current tension in the country to carry out their evil mission like they have done before.

We believe the USA is our big brother in terms of strengthening democratic institutions, advancing Peace and Security and supporting economic development in Kenya. Anything that jeopardizes the rule of law, social justice, peace and tranquility will affect these. In fact, if Kenya is hurt it may affect the US and the larger international community.

KEPAM is designed to bring together Kenyans at home and in the Diaspora in the pursuit for social justice, civic awareness and engagements, fairness in the electoral processes, equity and equality and advocacy for accountable and transparency governance practices. The lobby is registered in New Jersey and has close partnership with KEPAM Nairobi.

Here is the Link to the Petition
​http://ift.tt/2yrZ796

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Dear Nairobi Business Owners Community, A Few Points You May Need To Note

By Anwar Sadat

Lost in the midst of the confusion and the chaos that is the Kenyan political pandemonium is the plight of the ordinary suffering Kenyan.

The continued grandstanding among the political elites; those that have interests to protect as they call themselves,only continues to aggravate the suffering of an already exhausted people who have had to carry the burden of the failures that has been our politics and government over the last 4 years.

Youths without jobs have been been brainwashed to believe that it is patriotic to defend the government simply because its led by “one of your own” without questioning its commitment to improving their lives.

Families whose relatives continue to die as a results of Nurses strikes; or power outage at Kenyatta hospital leading to the death of 14 innocent children; or because the daughter an a CS burns down their school dormitory will gladly sing “Thaai Thaai Thaai” in televesions to defend a government that fails to guarantee the basic right of any kenyan to live a dignified life simply because that government is led by one of their own.

Whatever your political persuasions, it is an agreed fact that some minimum reforms is needed within IEBC to ensure the conduction of a fair, credible, and transparent election, whose output will unify our country. I therefore do not understand why anyone who means well for our nation would oppose such initiatives.

The current Kenyan crisis is a political crisis which will require political goodwill from both sides to solve. Why wouldn’t Jubilee also put forth their proposals of what they think will make it possible for the conduction of a free and credible elections?

Jubilee is interested in the continued provocations because its them that benefit. Every single day that the impasse continues, kenyans are not able to interrogate Jubilee and hold them accountable for their performance.

As kenyans continue to discuss about politics, Jubilee is passing cabinet resolution budgets loaded with cash for corruption just like the Kshs 4 Billion CHAN tournament allocations.

Kenyans must rise up to save their country or soon, you will have nothing to eat except yourselves.

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Raila Statement: Safaricom Played Key Role In Rigging Elections. IEBC And Jubilee In A Plot To Rig October Polls

Kenyans will resist layers of conspiracy to kill democracy, freedom and the rule of law.

We have suffered many calamities in the long journey that has brought us to this low point, but we have always managed, one way or the other, to overcome them. By making courageous sacrifices, we have frequently gone on to much greater heights, as we did with the 2010 constitution.

Today, we are in one of those dark moments in the history of our nation once again.

We are confronted with layers upon layers of deceit and deception that we must not allow to reign.

The latest of our many calamities occurred last month, when the presidential election was brazenly stolen in full view of Kenyans and the world. It was the third time in a row that the people’s electoral will had been hijacked.

It was indefensible the first time it was done, in 2007. It was even more intolerable the second time, in 2013. And when it happened again last month, the level of deceit and impunity soared into altogether uncharted realm. Amid such lawlessness came a courageous Supreme Court ruling that stunned the entire world, leave alone Kenya and Africa.

Genocide, ethnic cleansing and unlawful war aside, few crimes are worse than the theft of a people’s right to elect a leader who will address their challenges and fulfill their hopes.

But today we are faced with a crisis of monumental proportions that goes well beyond electoral injustice. It is no longer about who is the rightful president of Kenya, or about the naked theft of a presidency. That is unacceptable enough.

‘No repeat fraud’

The tragedy we face today, and which we have to confront before it consumes us is not that elections were stolen. It is that the IEBC, Jubilee and a number of local and international actors are determined to repeat that fraud; and they want to participate in it.

Those who control the levers of power in Kenya do not merely want to govern us against our will for the next five years. No. They want to ensure that they will retain power forever by all means. That is the entire purpose of acting President Uhuru Kenyatta’s outrageous abuse, threats and utterly lawless actions in recent days, which are designed to rally his base and other power centres and assure them that power will always stay with them. Not just till 2022, but forever.

To this end, Jubilee is determined to take Kenyans to another charade of elections whose result will be the same as the nullified one. One thing Jubilee and IEBC refuse to disclose and address, even as they claim to be making changes to the electoral system, is the role the local telecommunication firms, particularly Safaricom Kenya played in collaboration with Safran in manipulating the August elections in favour of Jubilee and Uhuru Kenyatta.

It is a matter of public record that Safaricom was contracted by the IEBC to transmit election results from the KIEMS kits at the polling stations to the IEBC servers. All this data was to be conveyed via Virtual Private Network (VPN) in order to ensure that there was no tampering of the results before reaching the servers.

It has since come to our knowledge that one of these VPNs terminated at a cloud server registered in Spain but operated from France under the control of OT-Morpho. Both VPNs were fully paid for by the IEBC. However, the VPN from Safaricom terminating locally was never set up.

Consequently, results from the polling station KIEMS kits left the country but never found their way back to IEBC. None of the kits under Safaricom’s network ever got their results onto the IEBC’s public web portal. This collusion between Safaricom, IEBC and Safran remains intact and the firm is set to do the same thing it did in August.

‘KIEMS kits stolen before Msando murder’

We are also aware that between July 25 and 27, the period immediately prior to the disappearance of acting IEBC ICT director Chris Msando, hundreds of KIEMS kits were stolen from the IEBC and the information was shared with Safaricom.

On election day, the stolen KIEMS kits were allowed to continue operating on the Safaricom network even though the company’s management knew those kits were not under the control of the IEBC. Safaricom allowed this illegality to go on and did not even care to report the various illegal activities of these KIEMS kits.

We have the names of the six individuals at Safaricom who had intimate knowledge of this conspiracy and either actively participated or concealed the same. That same team has been reassembled to do what they did back then.

We have instructed our lawyers to initiate private prosecution of the officers under the Cyber Crimes Act. Safaricom is yet to come out on this matter even as it prepares to take Kenyans for another charade of elections.

The sum total of these developments is that the messing up of Kenyan elections were deliberate acts of conspiracy, omission and commission that are yet to be resolved. This conspiracy comes out at a time Jubilee has indicated that it will be passing new laws to make it impossible for the Supreme Court to nullify any future election.

IEBC clearly has no intention of reforming itself into a credible electoral institution. It is far too beholden to Jubilee to begin that process.

In any event, IEBC cannot begin the process of ensuring an honest election as long as those responsible for the “irregularities and illegalities” are still lurking in its corridors.

IEBC has refused to dismiss or suspend them. That is why we are today beginning this peaceful campaign to force them out by public pressure so that the process of a fair election can at last begin. There are layers and webs of deception and deceit that we must unravel and to reclaim our country. That effort has started today.

Kenyans in no way want to hold another very expensive election which will be rigged.

Rt. Hon Raila Odinga

September 26, 2017.

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IEBC Officials Must Be Beyond Reproach Always

By Ndung’u Waninaina

IEBC officials must be beyond reproach always

International Center for Policy and Conflict(ICPC) empathizes that calls for all Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) culpable for bungling the August 8, 2017 presidential election to resign is based on principle that accountability is being responsible or answerable for your actions. It is the duty and obligation placed upon a person who holds a position of trust in society. People in critical positions of leadership must be fully accountable for their decisions and actions.

IEBC officials were fully aware upfront that it was universally agreed that this General Election was critical to Kenya as a nation-state and everything humanly possible must be done to ensure free, fair and credible elections.

Supreme Court of Kenya found that serious illegalities and irregularities occurred during the presidential election. The Constitution and laws of Kenya were grossly violated. This was intentionally, deliberately and or knowingly done by key IEBCofficials. These officials failed to bring honour and dignity to the public office of trust they hold. Their actions were a serious threat to the security and stability of the Country.

These IEBC officials could not provide satisfactory explanation to the Court why this happened. When such officials are unable or unwilling to account for their actions to the people who entrusted them with their mandate, then we have the right and moral duty to denounce them as anti-society. They cease to be deserving of the trust placed in them. This is because there should be no reason officials subsisting on public resources to be unable or unwilling to account for their actions.

THE ONLY reason for such culpable failure to adhered to the Constitution and laws of Kenya must be nefarious and, therefore, contrary to good order and the public interest. The law requires that public officials be held to account. If and when those charged with public responsibility decide to undermine the rule of law, then it reduces the concept of justice to jungle law.

Once people take up public positions and swear to serve loyally and to the best of their ability, they must be accountable for their actions, if and when they are perceived to have failed to execute their mandate in accordance with the law. They must, therefore, step aside before they can claim legal protection, instead of seeking cover behind the positions they are perceived to have betrayed. Like Caesar’s wife, IEBC officials must be beyond reproach at all times.

IEBC officials completely failed to deliver transparent, credible, free and fair presidential election on August 8, 2017 as the only hope to guarantee durable peace and political stability of the country. Elections without integrity undermine public trust in democracy, pushing people towards undemocratic and radical alternatives to effect change. These officials have lost Kenyan peoples’ trust, legitimacy and confidence. Allowing them to remain in office and purport to conduct fresh presidential election is grave mistake of pushing the country to a dangerous cliff. Constitution of Kenya 2010 has transformative governance values that these officials do not meet. They are not beyond reproach. They must pave way.

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IEBC Boss Ezra Chiloba Mocks Opposition NASA, Confirms He and ICT Head Muhati Still in Office and Nothing Chebukati Can Do

IEBC ICT director James Muhati is still in office despite being suspended by chairman Wafula Chebukati, IEBC Chief Executive Ezra Chiloba has confirmed.

Chiloba told KTN news on Tuesday while speaking on demonstrations for his removal alongside other officials.

“James is still in office. I think what Chebukati raised were issues subject to discussion at the commission level… I will not talk much about that.”

Chebukati suspended three ICT personnel said to have engaged in election malpractices. Muhati, coordinator Paul Mugo and officer Boniface Wamae were punished last week.

“Some ICT staff who were incompetent or deliberately and grossly misconducted themselves by carrying out acts of malpractices,” the chairman said in a memo seen by The Star. “The officers appear to have fallen short of assisting the commission successfully in discharging its mandate.”

The CEO noted all institutions have protocols and that memos are internal so the chairman does not have to give the public explanations.

“A lot of things go on around here that we don’t have to share with the public. The fact that the memo went out to the public does not mean it is the actual position of the IEBC.”

Chiloba further said Kenyans have to calm down and see what the commission can do for the repeat election on October 26.

“You must look for solutions that will consolidate gains for the longest time. We have to learn to build institutions for the long term.”

NASA, led by presidential candidate Raila Odinga, is protesting so Chiloba and others who allegedly interfered with the August 8 election leave.

He and other Opposition leaders have stated this as one of many key demands that must be met before the repeat election on October 26.

But Chiloba has reiterated he has not thought about resigning.

“What I know is that I have responsibilities,” he said.

He added: “People have a right to express themselves. We must learn from past mistakes.

“Given the nature of this situation, we need to learn from the past even though we are looking at the future. Today it’s me, tomorrow it’s someone else.”

The CEO further said the commission will have constructive dialogue with presidential candidates to address issues that have been raised.

The contest is between President Uhuru Kenyatta of Jubilee Party and Raila.

The Opposition’s have largely been peaceful but officers in Nairobi were forced to lob teargas canisters and use their batons.

Several volleys of tear gas were fired at demonstrators who then fled and when they regrouped, security officers fired more tear gas and beat some of them with batons.

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Embakasi East MP Paul Ongili or Babu Owino has been charged with two counts of subversion and offensive conduct.

The first-term MP known for controversy made an apparent reference to President Uhuru Kenyatta as ‘mtoto wa mbwa’.

Members of the public expressed their displeasure via Twitter and other platforms saying he insulted the presidency.

The MP also faced the alternative charge of incitement to violence in Nairobi on Tuesday.

Babu was accused of uttering hate remarks without lawful excuse during a NASA rally in Kawangware on September 24.

The charge sheet states the words, which were circulated widely, led to disobedience to lawful authority.

But appearing before chief magistrate Francis Andayi at Milimani law courts, Babu denied the charges.

Owino’s lawyer Siaya Senator James Orengo , who also represents the Opposition’s NASA coalition, told the court his client should be released on bail as this is his constitutional right.

This was after the prosecution opposed his bail.

A determination is yet to be made.

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Hon Esther Muthoni Passaris Joins Uhuru Supporters, Condemns Her Friend Hon Babu Owino Over Mtoto Wa Mbwa Remark

I would like to condemn in the strongest terms possible the utterances made by my fellow MP Babu Owino during our campaign rally in Westlands and Dagoretti North yesterday. No matter how big our differences or how low we think of each other, there is a line that should not be crossed.

As a mother, I sincerely apologize to the former First Lady, Her Excellency Mama Ngina Kenyatta, and her family over the insult and disrespect meted on her, which neither depicts nor reflects the character or direction envisaged by our Party leader The Rt Hon. Raila Odinga and the NASA principals.

Freedom of speech comes with responsibility, and I beg my fellow politicians and Kenyans on both sides of the divide not to abuse this freedom – whether on social media or otherwise.

Hon. Esther M Passaris ,OGW

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