How Kibaki Rigged 1969 Parliamentary Elections In The Same Way

…As Gitobu Imanyara emerges to sue serial slapping first lady for recent attack at State House


Jael Mbogo was a parliamentary candidate in Nairobi’s then Bahati constituency in 1969 and she recently explained to a British newspaper in great detail how she was rigged out of that parliamentary seat.

The amazing thing is that the manner in which it was done bears striking resemblance to how the presidential elections was rigged late last year plunging the country into chaos. And guess who the candidate she was standing against was? Yep, one Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki.

Much as I am a great admirer of Tom Mboya, one of the big mistakes he made was to drive all the way to Makerere University from Nairobi in his VW Beetle to fetch one Mwai Kibaki, then an economics lecturer at that university to become Kanu’s first executive officer. Kibaki learnt a lot of his politics from Tom Mboya but by the time the 1969 general elections were held, Mboya was dead, assassinated by Jomo Kenyatta's inner circle and a member of that evil cabinet one Mwai Kibaki and one who owed his political career to the fallen Mboya was carrying on life as if nothing had happened.

If everybody else missed this, it seems that at least the voters knew about this betrayal and firmly voted against Kibaki. Mbogo told the Observer that she was so far ahead in the early vote tallying that the BBC went ahead and announced that a young woman had defeated a government minister for the Bahati seat. It was not to be. In circumstances that are remarkably similar to what happened in December, the results for Bahati were delayed for several days as GSU officers surrounded the vote counting centre. When those results were finally announced, Mwai Kibaki had won by a razor-thin margin.

Jael Mbogo who is now a civil rights activist told the Observer; 'Kibaki stalled the result, and then robbed me of victory. Because he looks so holy, people are still asking if he really was capable of stealing this election. What I say is "Of course, he has done it before".

Read the Observer story HERE
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2251523,00.html

Meanwhile Gitobu Imanyara emerged yesterday after days in hiding to announce to the Kenyan press that he was suing serial slapper Lucy Kibaki for attacking him at State House. Imanyara who is now also a member of parliament, says that because of Mrs Kibaki’s short stature her “slaps and blows” did not reach the tall legislator. Interestingly at one point rumors had it that Imanyara had been injured very badly from the incident that he had been hospitalized. One sensational version even said that he had died.

Imanyara also says that he had decided not to take any action because former president Mwai Kibaki called him and apologized over the incident.

Imanyara told the attentive journalists that the reason why the First Lady was so upset was because he was handling the case of the KTN journalist whom the First Lady assaulted in 2006.

“Nobody takes the first lady to court and nobody gets away with it,” Mrs Kibaki is said to have screamed at Imanyara.

Imanyara says that the first lady was indecently dressed when she attacked him. He did not give clear details as to what exactly he meant.