Ambassador’s “Chosen Few” To Meet Wangari Maathai
The Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia has not been in the news at KSB for months now. Since she transferred Jamhuri day to Oslo, away from Stockholm, the Capital city of Scandinavia, we decided to give her a break so that she could try to recover from what could be “chronic psychosis” to say the least.
It was like President Kibaki ordering that Jamhuri day be celebrated in Lodwar, away from Nairobi. The interesting thing is that nobody from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs realized that something was amiss with the Ambassador’s “weird innovation” of changing Jamhuri day venue. But that is now history.
Since January, it has been public knowledge that Wangari Maathai would be in town on 1st of April together with former US President Bill Clinton to attend an International conference on climate change. Sensing that another Kenyan and International dignitary was coming to town, Ambassador Purity Muhindi, holed at the Kenyan Embassy, saw her possibilities from a totally different dimension.
It was once again time for her to show her “chosen few” in Stockholm that she is the boss. She has called a secret dinner on Friday and the script used for the invitation of guests has not undergone any fundamental revolutionary change. During the last six months, KSB has a list of dignitaries who have been “coming and going” with the Ambassador shielding them from Kenyans as if Kenya-Stockholmers are man-eaters.
Since late last year, William Ruto, Moses Wetangula, Jakoyo Midiwo and other so called dignitaries have been trooping to Stockholm without their presence being brought to the attention of Kenyans because we were giving the Ambassador time to reform. When Jakoyo Midiwo was in town, the Ambassador gathered her usual Walambaji at her residence for a secret dinner Party. Midiwo then left quietly for Kenya without knowing that he had actually been shielded from Kenyans and that the crowd he met was cosmetic.
According to Mr. Martin Ngatia who was contacted by KSB for comment over Purity’s continued “bad behavior”, the Ambassador is “behaving primitively” because Wangari Maathai is not the kind of personality to hide from Kenyans.
“Wangari Maathai’s caliber is so high that she is not the kind of person to be hidden from Kenyans. We want to meet Maathai and discuss with her the shooting to death of innocent Kenyans by police, the crisis in the Coalition and the on-going starvation in our country when the wealth of the nation is being looted”, Mr. Ngatia told KSB.
Anti-Ambassador campaign
The last time Maathai was here, she had just scooped the Nobel Peace Prize and Kenyans here collaborated with the Kenyan Embassy (through former Ambassador Kinyanjui) and Green Peace to meet her in Slussen. It was a very interesting moment and Maathai emerged as a politician who could take up questions head-on. The event was mixed with song and dance as Kenyan musicians like Moses Trubadur entertained the audience. Why should the Embassy deny Kenyans the opportunity of meeting her?
According to Mr. Ngatia, Purity is a tribalist and this explains why she is always surrounded by people from her region and who cannot dare criticize her. In fact, Purity is a beneficiary of election rigging because the continued presence of First Lady Lucy Kibaki at State House has meant that Purity has had to be in office since her posting was allegedly influenced by Lucy.
Another problem is that the coalition partners have been unable to agree on the distribution of diplomatic posts and this situation has benefitted Purity because the issue of her transfer was removed from the table. It is rumoured that Lucy slapped an official from the Foreign Affairs Ministry when it emerged that the Ambassador’s name was in a list of people that had been ear-marked for recall.
After the slap, some Ambassador’s who were eventually recalled without consultation with PNU simply refused to return to Kenya, arguing that they had not grabbed enough resources to enable them settle at home. Part of the grabbing of resources explains the secretive and, sometimes, distant organization of Kenyan functions by the Kenyan Embassy where corruption scandals occasionally explode into the public domain. We have in mind the Kinyua container scandal which took Kenyans here by huge surprise.
This time around, Kenyans need a protracted campaign to the government to get Purity out of the way because she is a stumbling block to the development of good and fruitful relationship between the Kenya-Stockholm community and the Embassy. The campaign should begin from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and if no action is forthcoming, it should spread to The Office of President and The Office of Prime Minister.
If need be, Kenyans here should work it out with one of the MPs to raise the issue in Parliament because if Kenyans cannot meet Wangari Maathai because she will be in the company of the Ambassador’s sycophants, then something is definitely wrong with our country. We are a failing State and the Ambassador’s shielding of a public figure like Professor Maathai is not just shameful but out-rightly despicable. Most likely, Maathai does not know that she is being shielded from Kenyans because if she gets the message, she will question the Ambassador’s weird tactics.
Photo credit: Aero Osanya
Okoth Osewe
Urban Life, The Black-Swedish Website
Urban life – www.urbanlife.se – is a website dedicated to the integration of Afro/Caribbean immigrants into Swedish society and the promotion of Black culture in Sweden. However, ever since it’s launch it has stirred up controversy. The idea of a Black Swedish website is obviously provoking to a lot of people, Blacks as well as Whites it seems.
Is there such a thing as Black culture and a Black identity? Is there a need for Black media outlets in Sweden? These and other questions shall be answered when Andy Collins and Christian Hofverberg present their website and discuss their goals and aims for the Afro-Swedish community.
_________
Café pan-Afrika
Wednesday 1 April, 18.00-19.30
Afrosvenskarna i Stockholm
Bohusgatan 25, t-bana: Skanstull
________________
Speakers
Andy Collins & Christian Hofverberg
The seminar will be in English but questions can be asked and answered in Swedish
Free entrance
Café Pan-Afrika is open between 17.00-21.00: For more info visit www.afrosvenskarna.se
Afro-Easter Party At Norsborg On 11th April
Afro-Easter Party on Saturday, 11th April 2009 at Norsborg Music Huset (Tomtbergsvägen 370) featuring star DJs: Dave Junior and Parker Jones. Time: from 21.00-06.00. Music selection will include: African Music – Soukous, Rumba, Bongo Flava, Dancehall Reggae, R&B, Hip-hop, Benga, Zouk, Afro Beat, Genge and many more. All are invited for a fantastic night to remember. For further information, call Winnie at: 0704853130.
Okoth Osewe
“Raila’s Stolen Presidency” Sunday Eagle Story
Raila Odinga's Stolen Presidency...
“Raila’s Stolen Presidency” Book Grabs Headline In Kenya
Osewe, I am pleased to let you know that your book, Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency, grabbed the headlines on the current issue of the Eagle Weekly here in Kenya. It is a fantastic report and gives details about your book in a way that leaves the reader wanting to read the book. The picture of the book, Raila’s picture and your picture were on the front page. The headline said “A Book on Raila’s Stolen Presidency”.
You Kenyans in the Diaspora are doing a good job and keep it up. Our country is failing and may be, you people are our only hope. When we read that one of you has written a book of this kind, we get more hopes for the future. The story is long and it was given a coverage of four pages in the Eagle.
The article gives the impression that The Nation did not tell us anything about the book. The article says that the book has already been launched in Stockholm while some names of people who attended the launch are also published. You should try and get a copy because I cannot reproduce the article here. One thing is that with these kinds of developments, you Kenyans abroad are providing some hope here. The country is finished. It is a very long article, four pages. I am in a cyber café but I thought it is important to let you know. Greet all Kenyans in Stockholm.
Lucas Odhonji in Kenya
Diaspora Kenyans And Contesting Seats In Kenya
I am so disturbed and ashamed with Mr. Ngatia’s remarks because he is blatantly trustful, credible and sensible. I was in Kenya during the entire time (December 2006 – 2008) before and after the Kenya ordeal and I released the first fresh news to North American News Media outlets, my adopted hometown paper of Dallas, TX. After that, news spread like wildfire. In his remarks Mr. Ngatia says that Kenyans are educated and sensible but that they lag behind in leadership of our country, not because of their choosing but due to poor and selfish leadership.
On my personal political experience during my political tour in Kenya, I once met with Hon. Njenga Karume and others who appeared not to have been impressed with me coming from the West, educated and with my own cash in hand to practice politics. I must have posed a threat! This I may never know.
The journalists in Kenya were even worse. They demanded a pay-out in order to cover my activities. At Machakos town, the situation was so bad that I once got a phone call from a reporter who told me that if I needed coverage, I had to pay upfront for my story to be published. Kenyan communities abroad must be prepared to meet such challenges. I actually questioned what I was doing in Kenya.
Reporters, voters, church leaders, ROs and others wanted money. A chairman of a news media asked for Shs200,000 to launch my name on one day’s national newspaper issue. Respectfully, I told the gentleman that majority of my constituents could not afford to put a meal on the table and asked him how they could afford a to buy newspaper?
Instead, I gave my money to different churches, not people in the streets who would use the cash for reckless spending. I did not give money to selfish beings bought by politicians for less than a dollar per vote. I declined to engage in vote-buying. I told the newsman that my stories about Kenya will be published for free in the West and that sometimes I will be paid for my stories! It was a horrible experiences. I understand advertisement and campaign promotion. This was not the case.
I found out that Political leadership machines in Kenya were opposed to the threats of the new leaders coming from Kenya community abroad. Kenya community abroad can ask questions and demand answers from politicians and people as well without fear.
Three days before grassroots elections, I shared a debate with the former MP for Machakos Town Constituency. I laid out to the people of Machakos the Millennium Development Goals that should have been introduced during his tenure. I found out that people had no knowledge of MDGs. After that afternoon, he lost his second bid to Parliament despite his support for ODM-Kenya. Soon after ODM-Kenya learned that their candidate was not a public favorite, they sneaked another crony who received the rest of the dirty votes from everyone by theft.
I challenged the leadership of the former MP in his home church, Machakos and in the presence of his people. I demonstrated successfully his incompetence in leadership during his term as MP. I did this without fear of his own people although I had been warned that he could pull a thing on me.
Later, ODM-Kenya leadership saw how strong I was at the grassroots. I
was on a KANU ticket, which had nominated me to challenge the former MP. Here is what happened! To save Uhuru for PNU, the KANU leadership pulled his nomination in all of Ukambani region to allow Uhuru to receive direct nomination for his constituency at home.
The will of the people in Machakos was not respected on behalf of one person. I lost nomination and my money! In less than 3 days I vied with another party. That was money spent and all my campaign efforts were wasted. People were confused about what happened.
I continued to get votes regardless of the change of party in the eleventh hour. ODM-Kenya had another method to stop my campaign. This time, it was at the tallying night in Machakos and like everyone else I had my own informants. I made no big thing about it; I told my people see you in 2012. Since then I have returned to my work base in the West to regroup.
Solomon
Dallas, Texas
M.A.D On An Anti-Child Hunger Campaign
M.A.D Ambassadors is a group of children and teenagers living in Sweden, who are striving towards making a difference. This group hereby invites all who would like to support their course of (NO CHILD SHOULD SLEEP HUNGRY IN KENYA OR ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!) which will be held on the 10th of April in Hallunda.
There will be activities such as talent shows , fashion show with an African theme, music, dance and other activities. We therefore invite all parents who would like their children to participate to contact us in advance. We will be meeting for planning so, please contact us to know the dates and venue. We thank all our supporters for baring with us.
With time, M.A.D has shown that it is a resilient children’s organization of Kenyans in Stockholm with several positive activities to its credit. The leadership has shown a high sense of focus in the face of difficulties. Now that it has come up with yet another surprise, what it needs is support from the Kenyan and other communities. Our children also need to have fun and there is no better way of doing it than taking a break to take them to a M.A.D function.
VENUE: TOMTEBERGSVÄGEN 16
TIME. 14:00
LOCATION: HALLUNDA
For more information: Cathy 0762034963, Carol 0735762101, Nzoro 0736289306, Sandy 0737803451, Liz 0739180804
Prayer Service In Stockholm For Victims of Lynching
Pastor Beatrice Kamau, in conjunction with the St Klara Church, will organize a Prayer session for the five victims who were lynched in Kenya after being suspectedby the local villagers of practicing witchcraft. The Prayers will be held on Sunday 29th March at St Klara Church from 14.00 hrs. Speaking to KSB, the Pastor said that the lynching was barbaric and should be condemned by any right thinking person. She invited everybody to the Prayer meeting and also hoped for further deliberations after the service. The video footage of the act plunged Kenya-Stockholmers into emotional crisis of sorts with one couple having landed at the psycholoist for help.
Okoth Osewe
The Place To Be Sato Nite: Sätra
VJ Party at Sätra
Emotional Crisis After ”Burning Witches Alive” Video
Members of the Kenya-Stockholm community have entered into a crisis of sorts after watching the shocking video in which suspected witches are captured being burnt alive in a village in Kenya. The graphic video, which has also shocked the world, shows the suspected witches being brutally beaten with a huge stick as extra “fire wood” is fetched to facilitate their effective roasting to death.
In the meantime, the video features a crowd cheering along gleefully as smoke bellows. The video does not show the suspected witches dying but it leaves no doubt in the mind of the viewer that they were eventually burnt to death.
Several Kenyans have contacted KSB to narrate their emotional traumas after viewing the video with many of them admitting that they can never watch the video twice. The video was featured by KSB after an agent who was on routine check up in the net for any strange Kenyan stuff fished it from a video-hosting web site.
Another Kenyan lady said that she had to call friends to be with her after she watched the video because she was “very disturbed”. In another case, a Kenyan mother switched the computer off abruptly to prevent her child from watching the video. She was afraid that the video could trigger an emotional trauma which could last forever and cause the kid to fear making a trip back home on grounds that she might be burnt alive.
In yet another case, a Kenyan disconnected an electrical cable connected to his computer and later pretended that the computer had broken down to prevent his Swedish spouse from watching the video because KSB is set as their home page. Throughout the evening, he pretended to have been trying to fix the problem hoping that other stories would be posted at KSB so that the video link could be pushed downwards and away from sight. For two days, he kept telling his spouse that the computer has not been fixed as he employed various time-buying techniques to ensure that the spouse did not watch the video.
He told KSB that the risk was that if his Swedish spouse watched the video, the couple would enter into crisis because he believed that the spouse would think that the Kenyan could burn her alive if they had a domestic quarrel which, he said, they had from time to time.
In yet another development, a Kenyan failed to sleep the whole night and in the morning, she called her work to say that she was unwell. Another Kenyan tried to call Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki “for the first time in his life” to establish why Kenya had become a failed State. He wondered why there was no security in the vicinity to save the victims of barbarism and why the culprits could not be arrested to face the law.
Domestic crisis ends at the psychologist
One Kenyan couple who never goes to Church called the local Pastor to request for special prayers because “they were disturbed”. They could not imagine the pain the victims underwent before they died and in the memory of the victims, they decided to trace the local Swedish Pastor to help them cope with the emotional disturbance which had hit the family.
A Kenyan who was called by a friend and told to watch the video urgently at KSB slipped by in an Internet café to tune in. After the show, he said he had to take a diversion to the local drinking hole to get zonked because there was no way he could travel back to his flat “without help.” He had switched off his phone to avoid contacts during the moment of “emotional healing” but when he got back home, a new crisis was awaiting him.
He entered into crisis with his wife who wondered why he had switched off the phone then proceeded to come home when he was drunk late in the night and without notice. The crisis began when the “Lady of the house” accused him of having been with another woman after the lady refused to give him time to explain his the problem. The woman screamed at him and threatened to walk out of the relationship unless the guy could give her a better reason why he had been out and without contact.
When the lady calmed down, the guy explained that he had been emotionally disturbed by a video he had watched at KSB of Kenyans being burnt alive but the lady refused to believe the story saying it was crap. At that point, the man requested that they go to the computer so that the woman could watch the video in question and the woman agreed. She switched on the computer, connected to the Internet and clicked the link. It was at this time when things began to change.
At first, the woman paid attention to the screen then she opened her mouth in deep surprise after which she put her hand on her mouth in disbelief before she began to scream. By then, the video had not gone half way. As the woman got her dose of shock, the guy lay on the sofa. Suddenly, the woman came running from the bed room crying and looking for the husband for help. The guy took her woman and embraced her in consolation as the couple started to sob for the victims.
“This is what I was telling you honey”, the man said as the couple sank even deeper into sorrow and sadness. “that is our country”, the man added as the woman said “I am sorry”. The following day, the couple never went to work. They went to a psychologist for therapy and they were given three days off duty to recuperate. They called KSB with their story as part of the “healing process”. It was a moment of emotional crisis for many Kenya-Stockholmers.
Okoth Osewe
“The Daily Nation” And “Raila’s Stolen Presidency”
In the wake of a biased review of my book, “Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency” by The Nation newspaper, and in relation to enquiries and comments by people who have read the book, it is prudent to highlight what the book says about the paper so that the sloppy review can be put into context. Excerpts below are drawn from Chapter thirteen (The anatomy of the 2007 election rigging) of the book.
Controversy: A snapshot of the Nation Article on Stolen Presidency
Just before and after the Referendum on a new Constitution, which Kibaki lost, Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper was notoriously accused (rightfully or wrongfully) by politicians, research groups and opinion pollsters alike of being pro-Kibaki government and anti-Raila allegedly because the paper was being managed by a clique of Kikuyu barons, the same ethnic group as Kibaki. A poll conducted by the Strategic Public Relations and Research (SPRR) on behalf of UNDP noted “…a general bias in favour of the President in both State-owned and private media.”(313) At the time the SPRR poll was conducted, the result showed that The Nation had given Kibaki “space coverage” that totaled 741, Raila 532 and Kalonzo was trailing with 645.(314)
Top staff who were promoted at The Nation before elections and who were Kikuyus were supposedly entrusted with a special responsibility of helping Kibaki’s election campaign at the propaganda level and at the expense of Raila’s team. For conspiracy theorists, the plan was to have The Nation employ a level of bias in favour of Kibaki. This theory almost gained credibility when an SMS was circulated across Kenya urging ODM supporters to boycott The Nation and to stop the newspaper’s journalists from covering ODM events. Sensing the potential damage the message could inflict on his election campaign, especially through accusations that his Party was trying to muzzle the press, Raila dismissed the SMS, saying, “I would like to state categorically that I have nothing to do with that message.”315
Although The Nation Media Group is a private entity, it is a mainstream daily newspaper in Kenya and, therefore, its line of reportage has the potential to influence political events depending on circumstances on the ground. Because of its high position in the Kenya media rating, and were this the agenda, the paper’s top brass of Kikuyu extraction clearly had the capacity to collaborate with designated members of the Kikuyu ruling class to influence political opinion in Kenya for purposes of materializing a specific pro-Kibaki psychological outcome, especially among the Kikuyu. The phenomena of mainstream media emerging as a major player to influence voting patterns in general elections is rampant across the world. In the United States, the Republicans are known to depend heavily on the Fox News TV channel for propaganda dissemination while in China, the view of the government is known to find echoes in key TV stations, especially those controlled by the State.
In Kenya, the State-controlled Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) exhibited obvious bias in reportage of election campaigns in favour of PNU, a bias that reached a climax during Kibaki’s secret and illegal swearing-in ceremony at State House Nairobi where KBC was the only media house that was invited to cover the event. That was after KBC was given exclusive rights to cover the announcement by Samuel Kivuitu that Kibaki had won elections. Every media outlet, including International Press, were kept out of the announcement room by General Service Unit personnel and regular police after the great deception at the vote tallying room at Kenyatta International Conference Center. Before elections, Kivuitu was himself quoted by the BBC accusing KBC of bias in their reports on election campaigns. According to one media report, “Samuel Kivuitu condemned the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) for not providing equal coverage to all presidential candidates.”(316) Given his role in election rigging, was Kivuitu’s attack on KBC for PR purposes?
This view about KBC bias was further supported by Raila Odinga who had no kind words for the Corporation. He said, “We are demanding equal coverage by this station, which is being funded directly by taxpayers’ money,” he (Odinga) said after holding talks with US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger in Nairobi.(317) In the report, Raila went further and accused Permanent Secretaries and Provincial Administration officials of having been directed to campaign for Kibaki. Using the inclination that The Nation was pro-Kibaki, Kenyan conspiracy theorists literally saw the rigging of election plans as early as 2005 when The Nation and other privately owned media houses controlled by boys from Central Province began elevating members of the Kikuyu ethnic group into top positions apparently in preparation for election rigging. Kikuyus who were already in high slots at The Nation Media Group were retained in the process of the abrupt promotions as non-Kikuyus were allegedly transferred to peripheral positions that could have no impact when it came to the general direction of news during election campaigns. Media houses that were already owned by the Kikuyu were reportedly encouraged to sing pro-Kibaki hymns as members of the Kikuyu ethnic group apparently underwent a choreographed psychological preparation on a mass scale to vote for Kibaki on grounds that power in Kenya should not leave the “House of Mumbi” (the Kikuyu nation). In rural areas populated by Kikuyus (especially in Central Province), this media brainwashing strategy is said to have gone overboard with some news channels using radio stations to openly demonize ODM as a political Party, spread hate messages to scare the electorate and, in particular, demonize Raila Odinga…
…For example, Linus Gitahi, who hails from Nyeri (Kibaki’s home turf ), was appointed the Chief Executive Officer following the retirement of William Kiboro. Mr. Gitahi, whom, at the time of his appointment was also a non-executive director of Kikuyu origin, controlled Equity Bank and had previously been a senior executive with GlaxosmithKline, a pharmaceutical giant.(321) With an interest in Equity Bank, Gitahi was not just another baron at The Nation but a member of the wealthy class of Kenyans whose interest formed part of the economy of the Kenyan nation. The post of Managing Editor of Business Daily, a sister paper launched by The Nation Media Group in early March 2007 and partnered with Wall Street Journal, went to Nick Wachira, another Kikuyu also from Nyeri. If any pro-Kibaki reporting or propaganda spreading was to be executed, these two boys allegedly from Kibaki’s own backyard were said to be the key point men.
In the run up to the 2007 elections, other key positions at The Nation were occupied, almost entirely, by members of the Kikuyu and this, in the minds of conspiracy theorists, further strengthened the view that changes at The Nation’s top leadership that began in January 2005 were not accidental. Other Kikuyus patched on top positions of The Nation Media House included the paper’s Editorial Director, Wangethi Mwangi; Managing Editor of The Daily Metro, Tim Chege; General Manager in charge of Marketing and Circulation, Mike Ngugi; General Manager in charge of Advertising, Julius Maina; Managing Editor, The Sunday Nation, Macharia Gaitho; Managing Editor, The Daily Nation, Bernard Nderitu while Managing Editor of Taifa Leo (sister paper in Swahili) was Wainaina Kiganya. Nderitu, who had been the Managing Editor of The Sunday Nation, had just returned from post-graduate studies in Britain when he was posted to his new position.
Theoretically, if The Nation was to help with sending pro-Kibaki signals to its English readers allegedly through a media master plan, the “Swahili assignment” rested with Kiganya and this made substantial sense, especially to a conspiracy theorist who could have found lots of indigestion trying to decipher why Kikuyus (whom, by the gist of their ethnic origin, were supposed to be aligned to PNU) were literally patched on the “control tower” of The Nation, especially in an election year. The paper’s top brass who were non-Kikuyus such as Joseph Odindo, the group’s Managing Editor, were seen more as flowers meant to colour the Kikuyu-populated garden of The Nation and to give it a semblance of ethnic balance. The non-Kikuyus reportedly had no influence when it came to key decision making, especially on political reporting that could influence opinion in the run up to the elections.
Besides having their fingers on The Nation, the State-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) was also in the hands of children from the House of Mumbi, namely David Waweru, Managing Director and Waithaka Waihenya, Editor in Chief. It is instructive that Waweru hails from Nyeri, Kibaki’s home turf. Together with other boys from Central who were in the control room at The Nation, it is possible that election news could well vibrate positively in the direction of Kibaki and at the expense of ODM as a covert or “invisible” contribution to Kibaki’s President’s campaign.
In a media survey conducted between January and June 2007 by Steadman Group, Kibaki was leading in media coverage among top Presidential candidates. He topped with 33 percent in mentions in newspapers, television and radio. Raila received 22 percent while Kalonzo trailed with 11 percent.322 The Daily Nation (25.08.2007) reported that from a grand total of 2,042 mentions, Kibaki got 1,151 mentions in radio, 747 in print media and 144 in television. In the month of June alone, the same issue of the newspaper reported that Kibaki got 32 percent of total mentions while Raila got 18 percent, a clear indication that there was a media bias that tended to favour Kibaki during election campaigns. Who could have been behind this bias?…
While the theory that the media may have been part of the rigging as early as 2005 sounds credible, it cannot exclusively explain this historic and criminal act that appeared to have had much broader conspirators. The Kikuyu-controlled media may have been a cog in the wheel of election rigging but my view is that Kenyans need to look much further and search for other parts of the puzzle that together can add meaning to an act of cowardice that not only shocked the nation but also plunged the country into deep crisis.
RAILA ODINGA’S STOLEN PRESIDENCY: Consequences and the future of Kenya
KSB Comment: The right wing media is unlikely to be obejective in its review of the book, given that the book also questions the capitalist status quo.
Controversy: Poll Results Debate Rekindled
Controversy: A snapshot of the Nation Article on Stolen Presidency
New Book Forces Us to Rethink Disputed Election
Okoth Osewe (whom I don’t know) has published a book on the 2007 disputed presidential election. The book draws on official constituency records of vote totals for ODM and PNU and concludes that Raila Odinga won.
A Daily Nation reviewer is dismissive and hostile, attributing the book’s purported “factual and typographical errors” to Osewe’s “lack of intimate familiarity with the subject,” and questioning his credentials as an “investigator.”(Other online reviews of the book are more inflammatory—and some members of the Kikuyu community are likely to be particularly offended by Osewe’s language.)
In any case, and whatever the nature of Osewe’s thesis, there are pitfalls in dwelling on numbers as a way to prove that Odinga won, since reliable independent observers claimed in the wake of the election that both ODM and PNU engaged in fraud.
Kenya’s Bourgeoisie Media Picks Up “Stolen Presidency”
DAILY NATION SATURDAY MARCH 21 2009
Book Review
By KWAMCHETSI MAKOKHA Posted Friday, March 20 2009 at 20:22
So it is impossible to know who won Kenya’s 2007 presidential election? Not true, according to a new book published in Sweden that could rekindle debate on who exactly deserves to be president of Kenya. In his book, Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency: Consequences and the Future of Kenya, Okoth Osewe claims the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 elections shielded the truth from Kenyans by saying it was impossible to know who won.
The book claims the Orange Democratic Movement’s Raila Odinga beat the Party of National Unity’s Mwai Kibaki by 246,987 votes.
Kenyan civil society groups have in the past dismissed IREC’s findings for not going far enough in the search for electoral truth but Osewe’s book is the first bold challenge to the verdict.
“Out of the 210 constituencies,” writes Osewe, “available documentary evidence indicates that ECK did a superb job in at least 161 constituencies in which results announced at the constituency level and certified by agents of political parties tallies (sic) with results announced by ECK (Electoral Commission of Kenya) at KICC (Kenyatta International Conference Centre).”
Although the author, a 44-year-old veterinarian and activist blogger, did not reproduce copies of the results in the 464-page book, he says he tracked down the records at the constituency level to compare them with those used by the ECK at the national tallying centre at the KICC.
“I obtained records of election results at the constituency level, records bearing the altered results (some altered by hand after they were received from the constituency) and records announced by ECK at KICC,” Osewe wrote in an e-mail to the Saturday Nation.
Despite the anomalies in the results records, which IREC readily acknowledged, Osewe says he went over the paperwork and found that the tally for the undisputed 161 constituencies put Mr Odinga in the lead with 3,734,972 against Mr Kibaki’s 2,269,612.
An examination of the election results documents from the 47 constituencies, whose outcomes ODM contested, the book adds, reveals that ECK officials at the national tallying centre wrongfully awarded 471,063 votes to Mr Kibaki.
The tally at the KICC also allegedly denied Mr Odinga 2,772 votes, which officials subsequently added to the PNU candidate’s total. Tallies excluded results from Makadara and Kamukunji constituencies because of irregularities.
Springing from IREC’s analysis of the results from 10 constituencies, which showed that Mr Kibaki received an erroneous 180,750 votes, the author takes the common sense approach. He examines outcomes from the remaining 37 disputed constituencies and concludes that the President received another 290,313 undeserved votes.
Mr Osewe criticises IREC’s decision to investigate the results of 19 constituencies, of which only 10 were disputed instead of investigating all the 47. It found that the documents were missing, unsigned as required by law or had wrong arithmetic.
The ECK announced that Mr Kibaki had won the election by 4,584,721 votes against Mr Odinga’s 4,352,993. The book claims this “blatant theft” was allowed to occur because Mr Odinga had made a tactical error by signing a memorandum of understanding with Kenyan Muslims.
Congratulations
He was thus viewed, according to the book, by Americans as inimical to their interests, hence the haste with which the United States Government sent a message of congratulations to Mr Kibaki before quickly retracting it.
Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency, which has 24 chapters, is as vociferous as it is polemical. It claims that the manipulation of the election results by the ECK officials was the last desperate effort to prevent Mr Odinga, now Prime Minister in the grand coalition Government, from ascending to the presidency.
Entrenched forces opposed to Mr Odinga’s ascendancy to power, claims the book, unsuccessfully tried to turn him into a bogeyman with greed for power, communism and failure to be circumcised.
Secondly, these forces allegedly attempted to create a split in the Orange Democratic Movement party of Kenya, on whose ticket Mr Kalonzo Musyoka contested for the presidency. The book asks whether Mr Musyoka was working for the Kibaki presidential campaign all along as he wrested control of ODM-Kenya from Mr Odinga ahead of the election.
His conduct at election time and after, and the alacrity with which he entered a coalition with President Kibaki are pointed out as telling.
The third scheme to scuttle Mr Odinga’s journey to State House, claims the writer, was by preventing him from being elected a member of Parliament for Lang’ata constituency. For a candidate to be elected president, he or she must be an elected MP.
When all these schemes fell through, claims Osewe, it became necessary to play the last card – use the ECK to manipulate the result.
Power sharing
Mr Odinga and his party have publicly insisted that they won the election but had to accede to power sharing as a way of ensuring peace.
The book is likely to readily face criticism for its lack of rigour. Critics will capitalise on the opacity of the methods the author used to study his subject, and the apparent lack of peer refereeing and editorial review to tear down his work.
The factual and typographical errors in the book, perhaps resulting from a lack of intimate familiarity with the subject, detract severely from the authority of the work.
Matters are not helped much by the fact that the publisher, iVisby AB, does not appear to be well-known, let alone respected for publishing in English. The writer uses political epithets that could easily annoy people who do not share his persuasion.
Osewe’s background as an investigator is not apparent – from the public record and the book.
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