US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec reads joint statement on behalf of
mission in Kenyan on Kenya's General Election. Envoys have threatened
politicians derailing October 26 presidential polls with travel bans.
PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE
Envoys have threatened travel bans against politicians who sow
anarchy or impede preparations for the October 26 repeat elections.
Sources
within both Jubilee Party and Nasa did not divulge the details of the
caution or the particular countries issuing it, but said the warning was
the culmination of concerted efforts by the West to get the two sides
talking and arrive at a middle ground on, among other things, how the
repeat elections will be managed.
According
to the sources, the envoys, among them US’s Robert Godec and British
Deputy High Commissioner Susie Kitchens, have been categorical that
failure to hold the repeat polls as planned could plunge the country
into a constitutional crisis.
Further,
the diplomats are pushing the two parties to drop some of their
demands and compromise, arguing that most of the requests cannot be met
due to time constraints.
SACKING OFFICIALS
Nasa
is demanding the sacking of IEBC officials implicated in the bungling
of the August elections, as well the cancellation of tenders awarded to
printer Al-Ghurair and technology company Safran Morpho.
Jubilee
has, on the other hand, proposed a raft of amendments to the electoral
laws in a contentious bill that seeks to reduce the powers of IEBC
chairman as well as entrench the use of the manual vote transmission
system, among other recommendations.
Nasa
has called for demonstrations against the poll agency today in Nairobi
and at county levels to push through the changes they want undertaken at
the IEBC before the polls.
The
protests, which the coalition says will be peaceful, will also target
the Election Laws (Amendment Bill 2017), which Jubilee has sponsored.
State
House, however, dismissed the demonstrations as a waste of time, since
Parliament was already working on mechanisms to fix the electoral
reforms as ordered by the Supreme Court ruling.
THROW STONES
“They
can sing, they can march, they can walk, but they cannot throw stones,
they cannot beat up people, they cannot lynch anyone,” said spokesman
Manoah Esipisu.
He continued;
“There is a group of people in this country who think that whenever
there is a national issue that needs to be sorted, it must be removed
from Parliament.”
Senate Leader
of Majority Kipchumba Murkomen, and who was a member of Jubilee party’s
delegation team that held talks with the IEBC and Nasa, yesterday said
that part of the concerns raised by the envoys was the deadlocks facing
the impending elections.
“They
(envoys) were concerned that as a people with huge interests in the
country, they are interested in a peaceful elections and that no
politician should use violence,” said Mr Murkomen. “As Jubilee, we
assured them that we are ready for more talks on the way forward.”
DIPLOMATS
A
source at Mr Odinga’s Nasa said the diplomats reached out to the
coalition’s principals and asked for a scale down on demands made to the
IEBC and calls for mass protests to force changes within the
commission.
“The envoys argued
that while it was prudent to make changes within the IEBC, removing the
officials at this time could be risky as there would be less or no time
to recruit new officers,” the source said.
Both
Jubilee and Nasa parties, however, insisted on moving forward with
their plans to effect changes ahead of the polls with Mr Murkomen
arguing that the ruling party was in no mood to negotiate.
“Mr
Odinga was adamant that the IEBC officials must go because they were
the ones responsible for bungling the elections. He however asked the
envoys to meet with Jubilee and call for a joint meeting,” the Nasa
source added.
The
European Union, had in its detailed report on the conduct of the August
polls, made a raft of recommendations to promote accountability and
transparency of the repeat polls and called for the investigation and
possible prosecution of IEBC officials implicated in electoral
malpractices.
OBSERVER MISSION
The
Observer Mission in its interim statement called for “thorough
investigations of alleged electoral offences in order to promote
prosecutions where warranted, including of IEBC staff.”
Mr Odinga’s private secretary Dennis Onyango on Friday told Nation that Mr Odinga’s meeting with the diplomats focused on a wide range of issues, chief among them, the impending elections.
“They
discussed a range of issues around the political situation in the
country including the electoral laws amendment bill and the developments
at the independent electoral and boundaries commission,” Mr Onyango.
Mr
Murkomen on Sunday said they have invited the clergy and the law
Society of Kenya to submit their opinions on the proposed amendments to
the election laws.
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