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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Is the Langata Voter's Register Genuine?

When Juja MP William Kabogo complained that his constituents were being 'exported' to register as voters in Nairobi not many people paid attention to what the man was saying. Apparently some PNU cabinet ministers in Nairobi have been mandated to stem the ODM wave in the city and to ensure that they make political life as difficult as possible for Raila Odinga who is the current Langata MP and the biggest threat to President Kibaki's re-election plans. None of the other aspirants have addressed any successful campaign rally in the constituency because violence has always broken out whenever they attempt to campaign there.

Press advertisements in today's press say that all PNU parliamentary and civic aspirants in the city will be having a meeting at the Kasarani Gymnasium on 19/Oct/2007 at 09h00. The agenda of the meeting is unspecified.

The fact of the matter is that tens of thousands of voters who are not residents of Langata constituency were made to take advantage of recent voter registration exercise and transferred their voting stations from other areas to Langata constituency.

PNU agents have been accused of spending time and money inside the constituency buying voters cards from poor constituents who sometimes have to make a choice between going hungry or selling a constitutional right. Both the police and ECK have not made any arrest despite glaring evidence of voter buying countrywide.

To make matters worse, the ECK's own SMS verification number is not returning confirmatory results to voters registered in Langata and its website is returning results of up to May 2007 and earlier.

Part of the strategy is to keep the present MP Raila Odinga deeply engrossed fighting constituency wars. If the strategy works well, Raila could well be staring at an embarrassing parliamentary race defeat in the forthcoming general elections against one Mr. Stanley Livondo and/or Mr. Ndura Waruinge.


Other allegations have emerged that the Electoral Commission of Kenya has allowed the voter register to be tampered with and many names have been intentionally double/triple registered so as to 'lawfully' disqualify supporters of Raila Odinga and enhance the chances for his opponents. A casual glance at ECK's official double register confirms that hundreds of thousands of voters will not be allowed to vote, not just in Langata, but in many regions perceived to be ODM strongholds. In Langata constituency, some voters have 'registered' more than six times in the same voting station. Who is responsible for ensuring double registration does not occur?

ECK's ability towards maintaining an acceptable voter's register has now been put into serious doubt being that majority of the commissioners have been appointed by the president who is in all sense and manner an interest party in the electoral contest. This practice, though not illegal, is in great contrast to the previous ECK commisssioner appointments which were done to also allow opposition parties nominate their choices to the ECK alongside those of the ruling party.

President Kibaki is reportedly due to visit Kibera this week to present title deeds to the Nubian Community who are Muslims and number about 10,000 voters in Langata. Land is a very emotive and controversial issue in Kibera as with the rest of the country. Additionally, there are non Nubian communities who have lived in Kibera for generations. The land in Kibera has not been demarcated and one wonders how the government will determine genuine beneficiaries. The basis of the presidential visit, it seems, will be to officially present Stanley Livondo as PNU pointman in Langata, and allow him to address first his campaign rally in Kibera, under the watchful eyes of presidential security. Let us hope no insults will be thrown to opposition or residents as this may result in skirmishes or even death. Questions are still being asked; Who is this man Livondo? I hope Chris will use his good investigative and research skills to unearth the truth about Livondo one day.

It will take much more than massive rigging to vote out Raila Odinga in Langata and it is hoped that for the avoidance of bloodshed and instability, the ECK will move fast and re-open the voters registration so as to adjust anomalies to the satisfaction of all concerned parties.

On its part, the ODM is said to be seriously discussing the voter's register issue and a specialist team is said to be critically looking at Langata constituency with regard to ODM's presidential ambitions. Very soon, we shall be able to report progress here.

16 comments:

  1. Just to comment though I am not sure anybody will buy my idea. 1. The ECK should publish the entire voter register so that it is in the public domain and anybody with querries can have enough time to sort it out. 2. ECK should open up to the public and accept to replace all voter cards which have alegedly been bought/sold 3. On double registration - In this modern age, I believe via the use of computer programs it is very simple to sort this out. The ECK should instead of denying these people a chance to vote, I believe all they need to do is to cancell all the extra registration and only leave them in one center. They can then publish that list to inform those who double registered of the only centers where they will be allowed to vote. It is a game of common sense rather than issuing threats and hard statements all the time.

    I hope there will be someone out there who can share my thoughts

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  2. Phil thanks for this post and for giving link to ECK official double register. I have checked the website a number of times to confirm registration but never bothered to check this page. I hope ECK will do Kenyans the honor of making records straight. Am glad that my name is not amongst those double registered, but I have seen many people I know and informed some who are shocked about it. I also hope the website will be updated soon with correct information because people have complained of missing records.

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  3. Oh... poor phil, I feel.... you though yet at a distant. If someone also did the same thing at Othaya, I would come out with guns blazing. But sadly what you have are mere idiotic speculation on the grounds of a disastrous looser aka. One Dangerous Man. Please tell me Phil... Is this the first time you have heard of a voter register missing or some absurd happening during or around election time? Or its because its your "Man" on the receiving end, so you are acting the cop around? Shame on you!

    Remember the steadman polls? When they announced Kibaki was in the lead the opposition cried foul, now the tables have turned & guess who is crying foul? Shame on them too!

    If you have enough reason to believe that One Dangerous Man will see state house, thats your opinion. Keep holding to your vote till you drop it in the blak box. Otherwise all this whining is totally childish... what do you expect Kibaki to do? Step down for Raila just because he can pull a mamoth crowd? Crowds never translate to votes. Just wait & see Kibaki win with a landslide.

    Of course, this blog is ODM territory but i dont give a fuck!! I dont expect your "CRY BABY" to crawl to State house after being handed over power on a silver platter... He better be man enough to get up & fight like a man, not sheepishly displaying his daughter-in-law at the NSE!! Did expect or imagine that the poor girl would speak Kikuyu to appease an already fed-up floor? No wonder he was reminded aptly kwamba NSE... is not a FISH market!!! Cheap guy hiding under skirts!! LOL...

    Anyway, back to the point in question... Phil why not offer a solution to your barking, or better still offer to be a volunteer at ECK and may be straighten up things? Could be that some Othaya voters are in the same dilema you are in. C'mon phil do the needful, you could be on your way to receiving a Nobel award... LOL

    (mr. steel pulse)

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  4. I may not quarrel much with this post, but it just confirms what has been going on throught the elections aleast in 97 and 02. In 97 & 02 some buses and lorries picked up people in the periphery of Nairobi(ruiru,ngong, kiserian juja,thika, athi river) and to go and vote in westlands (from a certain community) likewise it has happened in some other nrb constituencies. If the Citizen newspaper (not royal media paper)of last week is anything to go by, then there is more to Langata plitics than meets the eye. Infact it may be my humble advise to tell Raila to go to Bondo and Oburu to come to Langata. This would help Raila protect the presidency which is his for the taking this time round. Allindications here point to this. The paper indicates that most of Raila's voters have registered in Makandara and Kasarani to protect ndolo and Omondi for everyone has always thought that Raila is untouchable in Kibera as the numbers speak for themselves. Unfortunately, and according to the paper there are more luhya and Kikuyu voters in the constituency. No wonder they are giving Livondo preference to Waruinge as he could be aceptable to both communities. The enemy here could be from within. Pick your citizen paper for more on this story - How true this is i dont know. Make your own decision on the same. Njoroge - Mzee wa kijiji

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  5. The ECK website cannot access my info and the SMS cannot either...

    And I know i havent double registered.I think they should publish the updated list of double registration in alphabetical order

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  6. How comes most of the registered votes in Kibera constituency has missing six lower teeth and have foreskins? Is Kibera a foreskin constituency? Please enlighten me. Thanks

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  7. Phil, there is really a problem. My name appears twice too. Can you help me correct this, coz I have to vote COME WHAT MAY!! Just give me your email address and then we can chat off Kumekucha!!! Please!

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  8. Phil, the expectation that Kibaki, the Dalai Lama to some nutcases on this blog, will use his power and might to not only ensure but enforce a free and fair election is nil. The fact that we are about to witness an intricate Kibaki scheme to disenfranchise registered voters is a foregone conclusion. The election malpractices you highlight may infact be the tip of the iceberg. Which leads me to imagine the existence of a secret plan B. As Njoroge-mzee wa kijiji intimates, what's the deal with the Bondo-Langata switch? I've heard it somewhere before and going by the theatrics playing in Kibera, it is indeed plausible that Raila might loose that seat….unfairly of course.

    Now, if the powers that be choose to scuttle the voting process via the transfer of voters, double registration and other multiple Kibaki-like vices, there's nothing the common poor voter can do. What the poor common voter can do is not to sell his/her vote. Whereas, I can feel the pain in contemplating whether to eat or vote, it baffles me that the current president, sworn to protect the tattered constitution, will not utter a word of discouragement on the activities of Livondo and the forty thieves. That alone is reason enough to send our current state house tenant packing.

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  9. Prince Charming - thanks for your comments. The register is already posted on ECK website and one had better have the time and bandwidth to download it. Of course I agree with you, in this time and age, ECK ought to be able to sort out double registration without breaking a sweat, and if I may add, allow Kenyans to vote electronically be they in Kenya or abroad.

    Yesterday, after this post, I took time to go to Langata to counter-check the double/triple registration claims. The ECK desk at the DO's office is long closed and everyone in Langata has to troop to Nyayo House 3rd Floor to counter check their voter's card. It is very chaotic and disorganised at Nyayo House.

    This is the only station serving the needs of the entire Nairobi province where millions of voters are registered. As expected, ECK workers have contracted the civil servants syndrome of taking long tea/lunch breaks, encouraging wananchi to greese their palms before service delivery and checking the registers manually on paper rather than on a computer data base.

    Two things shocked me at Nyayo House. One, ECK officers select who will have their card checked from a queue. They check one's ID and decide whether you will be allowed in or not. Secondly, the lucky to be selected are 'taken inside' and allegedly issued with new voters cards for select consitituencies in Nairobi. It so happened that those left out are from certain tribes and yesterday a little incitement resulted into loud complaints and the PC had to send a contingent of armed APs to disperse the agitated crowd. That was at 6pm and some voters had stood in the queue from as early as 11am.

    What is the ECK up to? Has the voter register been secretly opened on orders from above? In any case, what is the purpose of closing the voter register; people turn 18 everyday and ID's are issued every other day.

    Am happy to learn that ODM has formally requested the ECK to avail the voter register for Langata, Westlands, Kasarani and Makadara, plus those of Mvita, Eldoret North and Sabatia. This is the beginning of a forensic investigation that may result to the ODM BOYCOTTING THE 2007 GENERAL ELECTION UNTIL THE ECK PUTS ITS HOUSE IN ORDER AND THE INCUMENT LETS THE ECK ENJOY ITS INDEPENDENCE.

    Meanwhile Kalamari, the issue of Raila shifting political base has been discussed but not finalised. It is unlikely to happen. He appears confident of being re-elected as Langata MP on the basis of his development record, CDF projects implemented and national stature, but some of his handlers do not seem convinced. They say the presidency is a big price to be gambled by a mere parliamentary seat in Nairobi. Constituencies mentioned as possible soft landing for Raila include Rarieda (obviously), Muhoroni (Odinga family owns a large sugar can farm) and Kisumu Town (Raila and his late father own homes and property in Kisumu. Raila also spent some of his childhood in Kisumu).

    Bondo is out of the question.

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  10. Let that fish eating jaluo kihii look for a safe seating in the Kavirondo Gulf.

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  11. Kenya election watchdog probes vote buying reports

    NAIROBI, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Kenya's election watchdog said on Wednesday it was investigating complaints that voters' registration cards were being bought ahead of presidential, parliamentary and council elections later in the year.

    Jack Tumwa, a commissioner in the Electoral Commission of Kenya, said it was possible that both the opposition and members of the ruling party were involved in the scam to buy cards in their opponents' strongholds.

    "It is true that there is voter buying," Tumwa said in an interview with BBC Radio.

    "If one wants to sell his birth right by selling his voter's card ... that is very, very unfortunate."

    Unscrupulous politicians have in past elections bought cards or dished out cash to entice voters in the east African country where half of the population lives in poverty.

    "I am not in a position to tell you whether it is the opposition or the government, but I would say ... because the complaints have come from both sides, both parties are playing a role in this," Tumwa added.

    Under Kenyan law it is a crime to possess another person's voting card.

    The commision has previously said tribalism, violence and graft were rife in Kenyan politics and said the polls that are expected in December, could be a test of how far the country had come since the end of single-party rule the early 1990s.

    Incumbent President Mwai Kibaki is seeking a second term in office and faces opposition from his main rivals Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement, and Kalonzo Musyoka of the Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya.
    http://africa.reuters.com/country/KE/news/usnL17671370.html

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  12. Congratulations Kibaki,

    I am happy that you are using every trick in the book to beat one dangerous man. My vote has suffered the same problem, but i agree to be one of the sacrificial lambs.

    Phil, picture this: Raila fails to win the race for the presidency and he is nominated to parliament. Of course with ODM's majority parliamentarians. Kibaki wins. Hoyee!!

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  13. Wrong, If Raila wins majority presidential votes and is rigged out at parliamentary level then he does not qualify to be president and so does Kibaki. There will then be a by-election in Langata and then.... a constitutional crisis arises... May be another full election.

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  14. It is quite unfortunate that most of you here do not see the grand scheme here. The plot is that Raila wins the popular majority vote but looses his Lang'ata seat. What would happen in that case? would it mean that Kibaki would be the President again? Not really because there is nothing stipulated in the constitution about that. What would happen then? We would go for another Presidential election.Would Kibaki beat Kalonzo? Kalonzo would emerge the winner in a probable deal with Raila. But the grand scheme is this, make Raila lose Lang'ata and then plunge the nation into a crisis. What would happen is that there would be an outbreak of civil strife with Raila being blamed. It is the reason he is being called dangerous, reckless and all such names. A daily paper has reported that the NSIS has told Kibaki that he cannot win the elections. Thus he can only do so if he rigs. The outcome of a rigged election will not result in a Kibaki win however. It will result in an election dispute and possible recipe for disintegration of the nation. The nation is headed for a crisis and possible civil war and some people are still thumping their chests and congratulating Kibaki for playing dirty politics. Remember Moi's chilling warning of bloodshed? You people will only have yourselves to blame if anything goes wrong because you saw it coming and in fact cheered it on.

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  15. Langata is not Raila's property. For Raila to publicly "fear" for the life of Livondo if he compaigns in Langata tells us that Raila knows something and has intelligence that the NSIS does not know. I hear that Raila Thugs are trained to fight any potential opponent to Raila from compaigning in Langata..is this the President we want to elect.SOme one who would rather cause mayhem on others just coz he fears defeat! If Your man knows credible threat to Livondo and NSIS does not have a clue - it means he Raila is the organizer of this perceived threat.

    Lets face it - Kibaki is more handsome than Raila. He does not wear those Othorongongo hats...dresses like a gentleman. Mr. Blogman - I present to you the Newly elected President of Kenya and Othaya MP - H.E.P EMilio Stano Kibaki.

    Livondo Man

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  16. Raila is sensing defeat from a mile away,,we kenyans as much we feel sorry about his 1980s torture,we dont need to be rocket scientist to know the kind of leaders we want!Raila manze just bow down!

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