CONSPIRACY THEORY:

CONSPIRACY THEORY:
WAS CHIEF JUSTICE EVANS GICHERU ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR THE POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE?
By Jerry Okungu
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
August 8, 2008

This is an open letter to Parliament, the Kriegler and Justice Waki Commissions.
It is a conspiracy theory that may shed light on the people who plotted to rob Kenya of a fair election and plunge the country into darkness. It is an angle that should equally be discussed in Parliament because Kenyans who didn’t need to die died senseless deaths.

On that fateful afternoon of December 30, 2007, I was sitting in my office along State House Avenue on the fourth floor of the building. As usual my window faced State House Avenue. For this reason I had watched countless times as the presidential motorcades raced along the avenue whenever the President left his residence.

This particular Sunday was special because it was the third day since we had voted yet the presidential results had not been announced. Meanwhile, the Kenyatta International Conference Center had been turned into a battleground of wits as announcing the presidential results took its turns and twists.

A day earlier, the ECK Chairman had publicly acknowledged that he had lost contact with some of his presiding officers in the field. He could neither trace them nor their results because they had switched off their mobile phones!

Faced with more heightened tension in the counting hall, Chairman Kivuitu threatened to announce the results and if necessary, aboard a battleship without waiting for the lost presiding officers because he believed they had disappeared to have more time to “cook” the results from their respective polling stations. His threat to announce the results aboard a battleship was informed b y the fact that there would be chaos after the results. He stressed that he was ready to die if necessary but would announce the results.

The nation was therefore shocked to learn that in the late afternoon of Sunday December 30, 2008, Chairman Kivuitu dramatically summoned the General Service Unit to clear the KICC grounds, chase away local journalists, retreat to a private room and announce the results to the foreign press and KBC with PNU ministers alone in attendance.

Because I watched the drama on KBC TV, I estimated that between the time I saw the news and the time I saw GK vehicles speeding to State House, it must have taken just 20 minutes.

The next thing I saw was the swearing in of Mwai Kibaki at the State House lawn. Surprisingly there was no guard of honor, no priests and no National Anthem. Conspicuously absent were the usual diplomatic corps, regional presidents and the military. It was a hurried solemn affair that even caught the press off guard.
What Kenyans have failed to point out was the role played by Kenya’s Chief Justice, the custodian of the law with the authority to swear in or decline to swear in The President.

The principle of natural justice according to one sitting judge requires a period within which any aggrieved party can raise preliminary objections to the results. In this case, the ceremony did not even wait for the main contender to concede defeat!

If the ceremony took place without tallying and verifying votes, why did Justice Evens Gicheru accept to participate? If it is true Mwai Kibaki had been duly elected, why didn’t he wait for at least 48 hours to be sworn openly with dignitaries invited at Uhuru Park like in 2002?

All along, we have blamed the ECK for the mess however, why have we overlooked the role that was played by Chief Justice Evans Gicheru?. Here was a Chief Justice knowingly participating in a fraudulent process, yet instead of telling other participants to hold their horses, he gladly accepted to fast-track the process!

If Chairman Kivuitu had to later confess that he didn’t know who won or lost the elections; if he could later claim that he was under pressure and threats from various political parties including ODM K, was the Chief Justice was coerced in to committing the same crime against the people of Kenyans?

To be fair to the ECK, Chief Justice Evans Gicheru’s role in the sham elections must be probed by Parliament, the Kriegler Commission and the Justice Waki Commission. He must be cleared by these bodies to establish his innocence or guilt. More importantly, it must be established that he was not part of the larger conspiracy to derail Kenya’s 2007 presidential election results.

jerryokungu@gmail.com
www.africanewsonline.blogspot.com