Nairobi, Kenya - Western diplomats have rejected the results announced by the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) on Sunday declaring President Mwai Kibaki winner for a second and final five-year term.
Kibaki moved with speed to occupy the top office in less than an hour after the results were announced on national television, after journalists were kicked out of the ECK media centre together with the foreign observers.
The main opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) said they would form a parallel government unless the ECK ordered a recount of the votes.
ODM Raila Odinga said it was fruitless to challenge the results in court.
Trouble started when the opposition ODM questioned results from areas in the vast Rift Valley, Central Kenya and the Eastern part of the country.
The western diplomats in Nairobi dismissed the poll outcome, saying it was not free and fair.
The European Union Observer Mission in Nairobi later issued a statement saying their records showed the results announced by the ECK, and also contested by the opposition, were fraudulent.
Anna Owen, EU observer mission press officer, said the results as shown by the ECK in some of the areas, which gave President Mwai Kibaki a massive 75,000 were confirmed at the polling zone as 55,000.
"There is doubt as to the credibility of this of this process," the EU mission said.
German Ambassador Walter Lindner said the reports from the ECK may not be credible.
"I think this is very bad for Kenya and I support the statement issued by the European Union (EU) that said the results were not free and fair," said he said.
US ambassador Michael Ranneberger said the outcome of the results had massive irregularities.
Canadian High Commissioner Ross Hynes said the reporting of the results had raised serious credibility issues about the integrity process.
"It started well on election day but the development today, I guess, is not good for Kenya," Lindner added.
There were no immediate celebrations yet after Kibaki was declared winner.
Violence erupted in Kenya with western Kenya being hardest hit.
In Kisumu, ODM stronghold, witnesses said 10 people were killed in violent protests.
"We need prayers for his country," said Job Oluoch, a resident who counted up to 10 bodies in a Kisumu.
President Kibaki was on Sunday sworn in shortly after he was declared winner by the election authorities of the hotly contested presidential race.
He was declared victor with 4,584,721 votes against his challenger Raila Odinga's 4,352,993 moments after the election officials stormed out of its meeting venue.
Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) Chairman Samuel Kivuitu said his 22 commissioners considered the objections raised by the ODM but were not in a position to resolve them.
ODM presidential candidate Odinga was largely expected to glide to victory after initial results showed him at 3.7 million against Kibaki's 3.4 million on Saturday with at least 183 constituencies out of the 210 declared.
But the final results showed a 231,728 margin in favour of President Kibaki.
Kenyan security agents later ejected hundreds of journalists from the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) where the ECK was to have made the announcement of the presidential results.
The security agents also removed foreign election observers from the premises of KICC moments after a power blackout ensued.
Police cordoned off KBC premises where the announcement was made.
Kivuitu said the commission had considered the objections raised by the ODM but had found itself unable to resolve them, adding that the issues raised about the doctoring of the results were legal ones that only the courts could resolve.
Reports indicated that a state of emergency may be declared. Truckloads of police, prison officers and officers from the crack paramilitary unit, the General Service Unit (GSU) personnel had been deployed in sensitive parts of Nairobi.
The result showed a vote of no confidence in Kibaki's government as some 20 of his cabinet ministers lost their seats in parliament. By Kennedy Abwao, PANA Nairobi 30-12-2007 Panapress |
Comments (0 posted)
