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03.09.2017 Feature Article

Uhuru Mahama Exposed in Kenya’s August 8 Election Scam – Part 2

Uhuru Mahama Exposed in Kenyas August 8 Election Scam – Part 2
03.09.2017 LISTEN

What we learn from the Kenya Supreme Court’s annulment of that most economically powerful East African country, is that the role of the so-called International Observer Missions may need to be promptly and significantly reconfigured to make it more relevant and credible in an increasingly biometric global electoral culture (See “Kenya Polls: Observers Can’t Be Faulted – Antwi-Danso” Classfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 9/1/17). Indeed, it has been well known for quite some time now, that many an observer mission means nothing functionally more than a mere rubberstamp of the official results that are declared by the Chief Returning Officers, or Electoral Commissioners, of the countries whose elections are being observed.

It is increasingly becoming evident that, at best, these so-called Observer Missions may be more aptly characterized as “Onlooker Missions” because precisely this is what they do. As even Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, an international relations specialist who is not particularly known for his insightful analyses of global affairs, especially those pertaining to the policies of African governments and the behavior of their leaders, observed in the wake of the annulment of the August 8 Kenyan general Election by Chief Justice David Maraga, “In ninety-percent of situations like this, observers just observe very little. They are in to see whether people are not being prevented from voting; they are in to see how people have lined up politely and are not been openly intimidated. And also, if there is just little or no infractions” or disorderly conduct.

Obviously, in the age of the routine hacking of biometric voting machines and the cancerous bloating of the tabulation of voting results, we need far more than mere Election Onlookers. The various international election-monitoring agencies, such as The (British) Commonwealth and The Carter Center, the African Union and the European Union countries may need to send in technical teams of cyber-savvy “Examiners,” rather than passive, observers who are legally certified and authorized to critically examine a randomly selected sampling of the electoral process, in particular how voting results are tabulated and transmitted from polling stations to the Command Center at the Headquarters of the National Electoral/Elections Commission or Elections Board, as a particular case may be.

This is clearly what Kenya’s Supreme Court meant by that country’s Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission’s not having strictly followed the constitutionally or statutorily laid-down rules for conducting elections in the country. Other than the members of the Kenyan opposition political parties, especially the mega-coalition led by Mr. Raila Odinga, that country’s main opposition leader, the happiest man for this salubrious annulment is, no doubt, Mr. Peter Mac Manu, President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s 2016 Presidential Election Campaign Manager, who was rudely and scandalously humiliated by Kenyan security agents at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, at the head of a delegation of election observers from the Democratic Union of Africa (DUA).

The lame explanation issued by Mr. Manu’s tormentors and entry deniers was that many Kenyan opposition parties were also registered members of the DUA and very may well collaborate with the Mac Manu-led delegation to rig the August 8 general election. Now, it turns out, rather scandalously albeit predictably, that it was really Mr. Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party that had something sinister up its sleeve. Now, rather than take woefully premature comfort in the Kenya Supreme Court’s landmark and eye-opening annulment decision, Candidate Odinga and his associates may need to more vigilantly fortify themselves in order to ensure that the Uhuru Mahama Cabal does not take the Kenyan voter for a psychically and an emotionally harrowing ride, once more.

In the past, Mr. Kenyatta who, until very recently, had been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to stand trial for causing the brutal massacre of hundreds of Kenyan citizens in the wake of a similar electoral event some 10 years ago, was known to routinely rig the ballot in his favor with impunity. With the advent of the David Maraga-presided Kenyan Supreme Court, finally, the luridly cavalier Kenyatta dynastic heir well appears to have met his match. Indeed, perhaps, more than his match. Ten years ago, Mr. Kenyatta, who also belongs to his country’s largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu, was accused of ethnic cleansing by the International Criminal Court. His case had to be largely abandoned because nearly every credible witness against Kenya’s most powerful politician simply vanished. Does this ring familiar, dear reader, in view of Chris Musando’s alleged torture and brutal murder by unidentified forces rumored to be aligned with Mr. Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party? Mr. Musando, of course, was the director of ICT at Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
September 2, 2017
E-mail: [email protected]

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