Raila speaks out on protests and poll reforms

CORD Principal Raila Odinga addresses the Standard Group Media to blame Jubilee Party for hiring hooligans to disrupt CORD's peaceful demonistration. Raila's official car's windcreen was smashed by an unkown object. (PHOTO: MOSES OMUSULA/ STANDARD)

Q: What in your assessment have the demonstrations achieved so far?

The protests have created intensified and widespread public awareness of the need to overhaul the IEBC and they have shown that Kenyans want the current commissioners out. People are coming out on their own to demand their removal knowing the dangers. That is commitment.

Q: What options do you have if IEBC Commissioners don’t leave office?

The option of IEBC not leaving office does not exist. IEBC will have to be reformed, complete with new staff.

Q: What kind of political compromise do you expect given Jubilee’s majority in Parliament?

We have tried the Parliamentary route before and our efforts were thwarted by Jubilee, so we are not going back to that route.

Q: Have you tried reaching out to President Uhuru Kenyatta for one-on-one talks?

I believe it is in public domain that we wrote to the President in 2014 asking for a meeting and dialogue, and again a few weeks ago asking for the same. In both cases there has been no response. So I get surprised when people say we have never given dialogue a chance.

Q: What are your main concerns about specific IEBC commissioners?

The commission failed to deliver credible polls in 2013. Equipment failure has not been explained and nobody has taken responsibility. We know IEBC commissioners have been implicated in corruption in the UK. Yet they remain in office while their accomplices in the UK have been punished. If you don’t have integrity, you have no business presiding over a critical exercise like elections. In the registration of voters for the last General Election, IEBC distributed BVR machines unequally so that some regions of Kenya got a chance to register more voters than others. We raised the issue severally but IEBC kept giving us the run-around until the register closed. Through its Chairman Issack Hassan, the commissioners made very personalised attacks on CORD and me as a person, calling me, in sworn affidavits in court, a perennial loser and complainant. IEBC’s words, through its chairman, in regard to me were: “He is adept at making others scapegoats for his failures and electoral defeats. He is a man used to ruining others as a sacrifice for his failures and electoral defeats.” Up to now, Kenyans don’t know what Hassan’s views are on the other presidential candidates. What is clear is that he has a formed opinion that cannot allow the commission to be a non-partisan player in a contest.

Q: What is your proposal on the appointment procedure for new IEBC commissioners?

The kind of electoral body and system we have in mind is contained in the Okoa Kenya Bill that the IEBC frustrated and rejected, but even that is not cast in stone. We are open about it. We need infrastructure that addresses the system of results transmission in a way that does not compromise the will of the people as expressed at the polling station, the counting of votes, the announcement of results, publication of results, services procured, contracts entered into and general access to IEBC systems, taking into account the principle of public participation in the Constitution, among other issues. We need to institutionalise sharing of information between the IEBC and political parties. We also need to address the size of the commission and terms of service. We want a lean commission with no more than five commissioners. Registration of voters needs to be reassessed to ensure majority of eligible voters are registered to vote. These are just some of the issues.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview was conducted before CORD called off its protests to allow for dialogue.