Leaders to meet with Kufuor

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Kenya's Kibaki and Raila are expected to meet with Mr. John Kufuor, the President of Ghana and also the current Chairman of the African Union (AU). Kenyans are hoping for a faster development towards the country returning to normal after post election skirmishes.
May intelligence prevail over hunger for power.

Kenya is in a dark position. I lament for our children. In the melee they died. They died over an issue they could not fathom, no matter how much they tried. From these dead kids could have come the future president, lawyers, doctors, nurses and so forth. But they are gone before they had a chance to realize their dreams. For this reason Kenyans ought to be ashamed.



Majority of Kenyan police have acted with utmost restraint during peace enforcement. Contrary to opposition reports of shoot to kill order, the Kenyan police displayed discipline and helped mothers and their kids in the struggle for survival. Kudos to the police force.
Reality of war settled in Kenya, and people have tasted what it feels like to live in a war torn zone. Never again Kenyans, never! Civil society would like to see peace.
The treatment Kenya has received from some Western media has been biased and meant to degenerate Kenya further by airing images of the dead, especially children. For instance CNN aired horrific videos without second thought. The same CNN would never show dead US soldiers from Iraq, just to illustrate my point.
Nevertheless, this will not demean Kenyan spirit. Kenya is here to stay, and these leaders will be gone tomorrow. May the voice of reason be applied to solve this crisis once and forever.

The kids died in the melee. These children did not even have an understanding of why people were fighting for in the first place. From these kids could have come doctors, lawyers, politicians etc, but they died in vain. Kenyans need to be ashamed.

SPECIAL PRAYERS FOR KENYA

Story by SUNDAY NATION
All the local radio and TV stations will today evening air a special joint programme to pray for peace.
The one-hour Prayer for Peace-Kenyans Unite programme is an initiative of the Media Council, and is supported by the Media Owners Association and various religious organisations.
According to the organisers, the initiative is the result of violence in the past week, which has led to a loss of lives and destruction of property.
The chaos over presidential poll results have also led to the displacement of thousands of people.
The programme is expected to involve leaders from the Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Pentecostal, Muslim and Hindu faiths, who will come together to pray for peace, unity, truth and justice. The broadcast, to run from 6pm, will include songs, hymns, poems and inspirational messages from various musicians and choirs.
According to the Media Council chairman, Mr Wachira Waruru, the initiative is part of the ongoing media campaign to remain pro-active in the search for peace.
On Thursday, all the major local newspapers ran a similar front-page headline – Save Our Beloved Country - while TV and radio stations suspended normal schedules to air special programmes calling on Kenyans to exercise restraint.
“Today’s programme to be aired simultaneously on all stations will aim at praying for peace, truth and Justice,” Mr Waruru said.

The Genesis of Chaos in Kenya

Hundreds of people and thousands have been displaced out of their towns.
The law governing elections in Kenya mandates that ballot form called 16A be presented to the Electoral Commission of Kenya. Form 16 contains results from polling stations. There are Returning Officers (RO’s) who are in charge of the particular constituencies who prepare these forms. There are also elections officials who scrutinize this form once presented by the RO’s. There is yet another form, 16A, which is more detailed and has various instructions on different course of action. Form 16A requires that the election official and party agents, under watchful eyes, tally the results before sending to ECK.
(Here is a chance to rig the tally)
ECK has an obligation to insure a balance between numbers of votes cast versus number of registered voters in that particular constituency. If number of votes is inflated contrary to that of registered voters, ECK has power to void and call for a repeat in that constituency. (ECK enforcement might be limited here)
The opposition was voted majority into parliament. There were few reported irregularities in parliamentary elections.
The major issue came about during the announcement of Presidential votes. Rumors of rigging first came from the European Union (EU). It appears that ECK initially was not aware or had no evidence of poll rigging, since things had been going smooth so far.
The EU cited Molo as an example of vote irregularity. This was reviewed by ECK and the Chairman indeed confirmed “cooking” of votes from this particular constituency.
The opposition members became fiery and during questioning at the ECK headquarters, they demonstrated their anger by threatening the ECK chairman. There was also shoving and booing. The opposition was not ready to listen to ECK at any juncture. This then led the ECK delay in announcing the presidential results. 72 hours later, the results had not been announced owing to reports of massive rigging. This delay enforced belief that the election had indeed been rigged.
Eventually the ECK chairman announced the results from his private office, with local and international media present.
A few hours later, President Kibaki was sworn in to office by the Chief Justice of Kenya (as dictated by Kenyan Laws)
The opposition leader Raila Odinga started calling for the illegitimate government to step down, and that he was the right president elect. Raila called on people to converge at the infamous Uhuru Park, where he would be sworn in (not known by whom), and that he would form a parallel government.
David Milliband, the UK foreign minister, declared that the elections had been rigged, without elaborating or giving evidence. Meanwhile, the US congratulated president Kibaki, and retracted one day later, saying that there were some irregularities. Others likes French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said that the elections "were totally rigged," but did not provide evidence.
Across country, things were yet to flame up. The first riots were reported in Kisumu, where Raila hails. Looting of businesses, burning houses and machete killings were aired by the media. Riots, church burning and more lives ensued in Eldoret. Reports indicated that Kikuyu community, where President Kibaki hails, was been targeted by other communities. World media reported “Ethnic cleansing of Kikuyu’s by Luo tribe”, “Tribal war in Kenya”, etc.
Nevertheless, if election officials at the polling station agree with all party agents, then the results sent to ECK are announced. . One function of ECK is to do reconciliation via studying these results. ECK chairperson then announces the final results based on their findings.
Meanwhile, president Kibaki’s party, urged the opposition to file suit and square off in the court of law, but the opposition said NO! The opposition was loud and clear that Kibaki must step down or else.

Deductions
First of, to purport that the harsh reaction is because Kenyans "cannot stomach another such 5 years of impunity" is exactly the line of thought festering in people who don't think upon the bed which they lie, resulting into murders of fellow country men, women and children. Frankly at this time we should not care whether Kibaki or Raila won but encourage for tranquility on ground. Kibaki and Raila have enough money to hire security from foreign countries. What do we have? Nothing. Where does that leave the rest of us? In an abyss of endless organized chaos and the death of hundreds perhaps thousands of people, including live images across the world of Kenyans slashing one another in savagery acts...Is this what you call a "harsh reaction"? It won't help unless people learn to tone down rhetoric. As a Kenyan, whether in the country or sitting comfortably abroad, this issue might eventually impact all of us in a profound way never witnessed in the history of Kenya. Who wants to live in fear day in day out? Let us use intelligence to champion people's rights and change the image the world has now been exposed to i.e. Luo's Murdering Kikuyu's and vice versa. Majority of Kenyans are NOT savages and that’s the truth.
One cannot trust either PNU or ODM in the first place to resolve ballot differences without each party trying to hyper the tally. A new election won't do for various reasons, including voters who have now been displaced following the violence. Some options to deal with the standoff include:

1. Do away with the ECK and set a new commission that is independent from now and future governments.
2. A completely independent body should be asked to scrutinize each and every ballot in question, results of which should be announced within 2 weeks.
3. The government needs to acknowledge the crisis and speak to it. Sitting behind walls will amount to zero.
4. The police commissioner should arrest anyone who loots, rape, destroy public and private property and carry crude weapons.
5. Voting in Kenya should be electronicised, such that voters are the only people who touch their ballots at the voting stations.