[DEBATE] : Kenyan media better at reporting the crisis than Western media (Dr. Vincent Magombe)

[Sean Jacobs]

>
> FROM: Dr. Vincent Magombe (Africa Inform International - London)
>
>
>  I personally find what the Kenyan media is publishing about the 
> crisis more credible and enlightening. I have no reason to doubt the 
> credibility and objectiveness of  commentaries, like that included 
> here below in this email, which has educated me greatly about how the 
> electoral rigging actually happened in the Kenyan elections. [ref: to 
> the article titled -  "Why Kivuitu must be held accountable for poll 
> chaos"  - by DONALD B. KIPKORIR, Advocate of the Kenyan High Court. 
> Published today, Saturday: 1/5/2008.]
>
>  A lot of media rubbish and irrelevancies are coming through the 
> press, especially the international media in the West. Things like - 
> "Raila Odinga and ODM must give up their opposition to election 
> malpractices in the name of peace..."; "Kenyans must not demonstrate 
> as this brings about violence"...
>
>  Western media correspondents in Nairobi are lining up to suggest that 
> the game is up for Raila Odinga and his opposition ODM, and they 
> should perhaps just accept to join a 'coalition government' and forget 
> about trying to achieve the reversal of rigged polls. The ODM is 
> calling for Mwai Kibaki to step aside, and for the setting up of a 
> TRANSITION (meaning strictly temporary) government of national unity, 
> which, together with a neutral, independent body (perhaps composed of 
> Kenyans, British, European, American, UN, AU facilitators) will 
> oversee the electoral review - may be through a recount of votes or a 
> fresh election. ODM prefers a fresh election. This seems  a very 
> sensible way forward.
>
>  But, what are Western journalists currently in Nairobi up to? They 
> are literary falling over each other in the slums of Kibera in Nairobi 
> and in towns and villages across Kenya, in a scramble for the best 
> picture of the 'genocide' as they are refering to the widespread 
> violence. [ref: to the article by a Canadian reporter, ARNO KOPECKY, 
> titled "Violence and cynical foreign news crews", which has appeared 
> in today's Saturday Nation newspaper in Nairobi. This article is 
> included in this email.
>
>  Few of the Western journalists in Nairobi are interested in the main 
> story - the struggle  for democracy by an electorate that feels 
> cheated and brutalized out of their constitutional rights.
>
>  The same Western media has always found it a great pleasure to 
> encourage and cheer on democracy rights' activists and demonstrators 
> (even violent ones) in places like China, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, and 
> Venezuela.
>
>  So why can't they understand that Africans (in places like Kenya) are 
> also waking up, and starting to stand up for their rights and 
> freedoms? Why do they think that Africans do not love to enjoy their 
> human rights? I thought that Democracy is nothing but the right of a 
> citizen (educated or uneducated, literate -meaning able to read or 
> write in English - or illiterate) to chose their leaders freely and 
> without harrassment.
>
>  And this is not just about elections - Democarcy is not a two day 
> activity. It is about governments being held accountable in parliament 
> (by the people's elected representatives) and, ultimately, by the 
> citizens themselves, who can chose to kick the leader out if, for 
> example, he wants to take them to a useless war, or is stealing state 
> money.
>
>  Some have told us that Democracy is a Western phenomenon, and that 
> African cultures and experiences cannot and must not permit democracy 
> to come home. This is nothing but racist, and primitive thinking of 
> the most abhorent kind. Perceptions and views like these, which imply 
> that Africans are inferior human beings, smacks of utter ignorence and 
> upside-down thinking.
>
>  Democracy is about citizens saying to the politicians - "we want 
> hospitals, schools, roads, homes to live in... we don't want war, 
> corruption, state repression, etc". Even the most uneducated villager 
> in Africa is capable of making these choices. Democracy enables the 
> citizens to force politicians to provide for their wants and 
> aspirations. Those politicians who fail to do this are cast out 
> through the simple expression of 'individual democratic right' of  - 
> "I don't want you anymore, I am fed up... I want someone else.. Bye!"
>
>  Democracy is also about the roles of the other oversight pillars 
> within the democratic infrastructure, for example the independent and 
> even public media, which are called upon to act as watchdogs on behalf 
> of society. The media must critically observe and expose state 
> mal-practices and wrong doings - thus strengthening the way society 
> holds the leaders accountable.
>
>  Then, there is the positive and constructive role that other 
> institutions, like the judiciary, the security services, and even 
> civil society organisations can play in ensuring that democracy 
> thrives and lives. The Kenyan police, and most African security 
> agencies, inculding the military, must always be on the side of the 
> people, they must defend the rights and freedoms of the people, not 
> the unconstituional acts of the leaders.
>
>  So, one would have expected the Kenyan police to investigate and 
> charge electoral commisioners who might have rigged the elections. 
> They should have taken Mr. Mwai Kibaki to task, since he seems to have 
> been the prime organiser of the rigging. Instead the police are 
> opening fire and killing hundreds of freedom-seeking citizens.
>
>  I bet the British Police would have interviewed Tony Blair or Gordon 
> Brown if the two were to take part in electoral rigging.
>
>  Democracy is also about the rights of the citizens to vent their 
> frustrations and demand for redress when there is a miscarriage of 
> justice. If the citizens feel agrieved, they must be able to go to the 
> courts, but the courts must then abide by the constitutional 
> requirement to act as independent arbitors. This is not the case in 
> Kenya, and in most African countries. Here the courts are in the 
> service of the state, for the state, and sometimes, even by the state. 
> I can understand why Raila Odinga and his ODM colleagues are 
> apprehensive of going to the courts to seek justice.
>
>  But the aggrieved citizens, in a Democarcy, can also and should go to 
> the streets, where necessary, to demonstrate and shout out their 
> anger.
>
>  Even in Britain and America when citizens feel that an injustice is 
> being metted upon them, they resort to demonstrations. This is their 
> constitutional right. The state does not shoot 300 demonstrators dead 
> in 2 days. I should add that demonstrators in Britain do not usually 
> go out to burn churches with innocent people in them, even if these 
> people belonged to the other side. It has, however, happened in Europe 
> - during this century and in the last century. The second World, and 
> other civil conflicts that have occured after that, for example in the 
> Blakans, and even Northern Ireland, have seen outrageous acts of 
> brutality by one section of society against the other.
>
>  Often times, demonstrations in Britain are peaceful, but sometimes 
> they can turn rowdy and violent. We have all seen how cars and shops 
> have been set on fire during demonstrations in Britain, France, US, 
> Germany, etc. In spite of this, the citizens are still granted their 
> constitutional right to demonstrate.
>
>  What I believe, personally, is that the Kenyan people must not give 
> up their struggle against election rigging. Let them not do like 
> Ugandans, who seem to give up so quickly. Ugandans are also good at 
> going to the bush, pretending that they have been cheated in 
> elections, only to take power and proceed to rig every election, to 
> ban political parties, arrest opposition leaders during elections, 
> shoot at innocent opposition supporters, and to violet the 
> constitution left and right.
>
>  Enough should be enough. Ugandans must be prepared to stand up and be 
> counted. The Raila  Odingas of this world will be remembered in 
> history as true democrats, who stood up to election malpractices. I 
> hope they will not succumb to bullets and machetes.
>
>  Bravo to Kenyans.
>
>  Ugandans should be prepared to do the same come 2011. That is if the 
> elections will be rigged. True Uganda democrats must start mobilising 
> and preparing for any such eventuality. Remember, all our problems 
> have been because of lack of democracy - including election rigging 
> and the brutalisation of opposition politicians.
>
>  National instability and civil strife in Uganda will only come to an 
> end when our leaders are made to understand that the people will stand 
> up to all undemocratic tendencies. And that the Orange Revolution in 
> Kenya (we all hope it will succeed) will be adopted by Ugandans if the 
> state tries to steal votes from the people.
>
>  I hope President Museveni and his advisers are closely following 
> events in Kenya. I hope Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Sudan's Bashir, 
> Libya's Muamar Gadhafi, Malawi's Bingu wa Mutharika, Kagame's Paul 
> Kagame, and all other African non-democrats are interesting themselves 
> in what is going on in Kenya.
>
>  While the violence, (especially that being visited on those 
> struggling for democracy, thanks to Police Brutality, or that being 
> committed against innocent civilians in the name of revenge), is 
> totally unacceptable and truly sickening, the most important thing 
> that should steal our attention is the fact that the Kenyan electorate 
> who have been cheated of victory are not going to let the cheaters off 
> the hook! That is something new in the history of Africa!
>
>  If the 'Orange Revolution' succeeds in Kenya, all the cheaters and 
> robbers of the people's freedom, right across the African continent, 
> will have to go slow.
>
>
>
>  Dr. Vincent Magombe
> Africa Inform International, LOndon.
>
>
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>
>
> NEWS EXTRA
>
> Why Kivuitu must be held accountable for poll chaos
>
>  Story by DONALD B. KIPKORIR
>  Publication Date: 1/5/2008
>
>
>  About 5.30pm on December 30, Electoral Commission chairman Samuel 
> Kivuitu and two other commissioners huddled in a tiny room and, 
> exclusively through state-funded Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, 
> announced President Kibaki re-elected.
>
>  Within an hour, the President was sworn in at State House at a 
> function in which the national anthem was not played and in the 
> absence of the diplomatic corps. Then the country was thrown into 
> chaos. 
>
> In the fullness of time, history will apportion culpability over the 
> current anarchy. At the moment, however, Mr Kivuitu should take full 
> responsibility.
>
>  But as he tries to run away from this responsibility to blame the 
> chaos on pressure from PNU and ODM Kenya, I wish to offer the correct 
> legal position over the whole saga and how the country can wriggle out 
> of it.
>
> The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) was created pursuant to 
> Section 41 of the Constitution and thus has security of tenure and 
> independence. Section 42A sets out its mandate to be mainly two-fold ? 
> the registration of voters and the maintenance of the voter register, 
> as well as directing and supervising civic, parliamentary and 
> presidential elections.
>
> The National Assembly and Presidential Elections Act, Cap 7, and its 
> subsidiary, the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections Regulations 
> sets out the legal framework that enables the ECK to effectively and 
> fully conduct elections.
>
>  The election of political leaders is a key component of any nation 
> state that claims to be a democracy. To be legitimate, the electoral 
> process must not only be free and fair, but also be seen to be so. 
>
> The regulations clearly set out the road-map for conducting elections, 
> voting, votes counting and tallying, announcing results and 
> challenging the process.
>
> Presidential, parliamentary and civic elections are conducted at the 
> polling stations, which are so located that voters have access to them 
> with the least inconvenience and such that the ECK and the Government 
> provide the logistics, the materials and security.
>
>  At the moment, there are nearly 27,000 polling stations.  Each 
> station is headed by a presiding officer, assisted by poll clerks.
>
>  On the polling day, voters are given specific times within which they 
> may cast their votes in person and not by proxy.
>
>  All through the entire voting process, candidates? agents, the media 
> and accredited observers have free and unlimited access to the polling 
> centre to witness the voting.
>
> At the close of voting, the presiding officer and his clerks, in the 
> presence of the agents, the media and observers, proceed to count the 
> votes. Once the counting begins, the law stipulates that it shall not 
> stop until it is completed.
>
>  The results are then announced at the polling stations. The presiding 
> officer then makes three packets each separately holding valid, 
> disputed and spoilt ballot papers.  The officer makes another three 
> packets holding spoilt papers, marked copy register and counterfoils 
> of used ballot papers. He also prepares a statement that summarises 
> the voting at the polling station, which he signs. It is countersigned 
> by all the agents present.
>
>  The packets are sealed and the agents are free to affix their own 
> seal. The two sets of packets, the statement and the ballot boxes are 
> transmitted to the returning officer at the constituency level. 
>
> The returning officer, once he receives the packets and boxes from the 
> polling stations, proceeds to tally the votes. This is done in the 
> presence of the candidates? agents and the media. Vote recounting is 
> not gone into, except for those disputed, and the returning officer 
> has discretion to confirm or vary the disputed ones only. He shall 
> never change the valid or spoilt votes. He then proceeds to announce 
> to all present the results of both the presidential and parliamentary 
> votes. 
>
> The returning officer is obliged in law to then fill Forms 16, 16A and 
> 17A, which set out the results and the votes cast for each 
> presidential and parliamentary candidates. The statutory forms are 
> signed by the officer and the candidates? agents.
>
>  The agents, the media and observers are allowed to make and keep 
> copies of the three forms, which are then physically delivered to the 
> ECK headquarters in Nairobi.
>
> On receiving them the ECK gives all parliamentary and presidential 
> candidates 24 hours to lodge complaints, if any, including demanding a 
> recount or retallying.
>
>  The ECK is obliged to, within 48 hours, allow the recount or 
> retallying. All candidates and the ECK therefore have 72 hours to 
> resolve any disputes. It is only after the period that the ECK can 
> announce the winners of each of the 210 parliamentary seats and issue 
> a certificate known as Form 17 to each elected MP and Form 18 to the 
> elected president. The results are then gazetted.
>
> With due respect to Mr Kivuitu, it was irregular, unlawful and void in 
> law to announce the results on December 30 and swear in the President 
> on the same day. The ECK boss announced the results when he did not 
> have the original Forms 16, 16A and 17A from each constituency, 
> refused to allow the 24-hour period for candidates to lodge complaints 
> and declined to allow retallying.  He told the world that his 
> returning officers had gone underground, and that he did not have 
> powers to order retallying.
>
>  On the day the results were being announced, Special Gazette Notice 
> No. 12612 was issued declaring Mr Kibaki the president. Mr Kivuitu 
> deliberately misled the world and subverted the law. 
>
> Section 5 of the Constitution states that the president shall be 
> elected in accordance with the Constitution and the National Assembly 
> and Presidential Elections Act, Cap 7. Non-compliance with the 
> mandatory provisions vitiates the process.
>
> In law, the fundamental principle is that a void process does not 
> confer legitimacy. A public officer acting in compliance with the law 
> must comply with the substantive, formal and procedural conditions 
> laid down and at all times act in good faith and for the public good.
>
>  As a repository of these constitutional and statutory powers and 
> duties, Mr Kivuitu was obliged to be faithful to the process and not 
> be influenced by external forces, as he has admitted.  By his 
> infidelity to the law, he has failed the country and must undo the 
> mistakes. Section 5 of the Constitution states that a president duly 
> elected is the one who has the highest votes cast. 
>
> The ECK can invoke its powers under the Constitution to retally all 
> valid Forms 16 and 16A and retract the results and announce the valid 
> ones. The announcement of results on December 30 was a ministerial act 
> that does not invalidate the ECK?s constitutional powers.  The 
> Constitution states that any other law that is inconsistent with the 
> provisions of the Constitution is void to the extent of inconsistency.
>
>  Thus, Mr Kivuitu must take the high road, invoke the ECK?s 
> constitutional mandate and review the forms and give Kenyans the 
> president they elected, be it Mr Kibaki or ODM candidate Raila 
> Odinga. 
>
> The tough stands taken by ODM and President Kibaki?s PNU are theatrics 
> which will not help the country. Neither party has any constitutional 
> mandate that is the ECK?s monopoly.
>
>  If he allows the status quo to stay, Mr Kivuitu will one day be held 
> to account for the bloodshed and property destroyed.  The country?s 
> unity and future rest on his shoulders, and he cannot pass the buck. 
>
>
> Mr Kipkorir is an advocate of the High Court.
>
> Write to the author
>
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> Email this Story
>
> Nation Media Group all rights reserved 2007
>
>   
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>
> NEWS EXTRA
>
>
>
> Violence and cynical foreign news crews
>
>
>  Publication Date: Saturday, 1/5/2008
>
>
>
>  As a Canadian, ARNO KOPECKY gives his impression of what he has seen 
> in Nairobi during the riots this weekIn most of the television clips 
> we see of the riots these days, it seems there are almost as many 
> journalists in the frame as looters.
>
>
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>
> Daniel Muiruri Nduati, an aspirant for Dagoretti?s Mutuini ward, 
> addresses supporters before the elections. Photo/ARNO KOPECKY.
>
>
> Kenya?s election debacle has quickly become a world event, sharing the 
> No. 1 news slot with Pakistan?s assassinated former premier Benazir 
> Bhutto and the occasional suicide bomber.  Accordingly, the number of 
> foreign reporters flitting around town in red vests has quintupled, 
> their presence all the more noticeable for the lack of anyone else in 
> the streets.
>
> As one of them (minus the red vest), I?ve enjoyed watching the subtle 
> interactions that take place between the growing pool of competitors 
> for the most shocking photo, the saddest story, the most heroic 
> reporting. We drive from one lynching to another, from burnt churches 
> to dispersed rallies, like children chasing marbles. 
>
> It takes a fair amount of cynicism to fly around the world just to 
> watch people?s lives fall apart.  I spoke with one photographer, for 
> instance, moments after he?d returned from a riot in Mathare; he was 
> heart-broken, not by what he saw, but because he had put his camera on 
> the wrong setting and none of the bodies he had photographed turned 
> out well.
>
> My introduction to the circus came about an hour after Mr Samuel 
> Kivuitu declared that Mr Mwai Kibaki had won the presidential 
> election, late last Sunday afternoon.  One of the first thoughts on 
> many people?s minds was Kibera ? they had already been rioting for two 
> days, and it was painfully obvious that the slum would now explode. I 
> volunteered to check it out along with a colleague who had grown up in 
> Kibera, and spoke the right language to be there.
>
> Twenty minutes later, Chris and I were standing on Makina road at the 
> entrance to the slum. It was dusk, and the orange-glowing smoke of 
> countless bonfires already hung over the brown rooftops ahead.  
> Thousands of hoots and ululations mingled and echoed forth in a single 
> high pitch from the mobs we couldn?t yet see, and we stood there 
> contemplating the disaster among crews from BBC, Reuters, AP and the 
> like.  While we muttered and stalled, a steady stream of ragged young 
> men marched past us en route to the flames. One after another of the 
> news teams got calls from their head offices ordering them to leave.
>
>  I later learned that most news crews, when they do enter such scenes, 
> work as a team, walking two ahead and two behind wherever possible and 
> always identifying escape routes.  But when Chris and I went forward, 
> my only thought was to stay glued to his side and let him do the 
> talking. It was dark by then.
>
>  Just as we began, an enormous fireball mushroomed brilliantly into 
> the sky far ahead ? Patrick Njiru?s famous gas station had exploded. 
> The volume around us went up a notch. Young men and women dragged 
> their machetes on the gravel, shouting ?No Raila! No Peace!? and when 
> they saw the mzungu reporter in their midst added ?Tell them!? 
>
> We kept a good pace all the way to Olympic primary school, where we 
> finally paused to chain-smoke a few cigarettes. Stopping meant being 
> surrounded by angry children, most of them drunk and spitting in your 
> face as they declared that none of this was their fault. That?s 
> probably the last nighttime stroll I?ll take through Kibera, at least 
> for the next few weeks, but the trip epitomised everything the West 
> finds fascinating about Kenya?s situation. 
>
> There is a certain helplessness motivating the destroyers of public 
> property and innocent lives, as though they just can?t keep the demons 
> inside them at bay. On the surface, it?s about taking the only 
> available avenue of protest against what they see as a stolen 
> election.  But once those forces are unleashed, politics fly out the 
> window and a delighted sort of rage takes over. You can see in many of 
> their faces that some of these rioters are having the times of their 
> lives. Given their upbringing, that?s pretty understandable.
>
>  But the outsider, whose own life is untouched by someone else?s 
> tragedy, is mostly interested in the spectacle; he sees it as a 
> movie.  Wow, he thinks, these people really know how to blow up. What 
> passion! What anger! It?s 21st century Shakespeare, written in the 
> ghettos and produced by CNN, best watched with a bucket of popcorn.
>
> But to be fair, there are plenty of viewers and readers, not to 
> mention journalists, who are watching this through a more 
> sophisticated lens.  When crimes like the ones now proliferating 
> throughout the country happen in isolation, the counterbalance of 
> shame is hard to kick in. By recording these events, we put not just 
> the looters on trial, but also the politicians who know very well they 
> could put a stop to the madness any time they liked.
>
> Nation Media Group all rights reserved 2007