Daniel Otieno And Angwenyi Gichana
14 August 2008
Nairobi — Utterances by Electoral Commission of Kenya chairman Samuel Kivuitu during the presidential vote tallying contributed to the post-poll chaos, the Waki Commission heard Thursday.
Former Kericho head of police Walter Aliwa said Mr Kivuitu's utterances to the effect that the results were still being cooked by some officials prepared the ground for the spontaneous protests.
Cause chaos
"Already there were claims that the votes would be rigged and that statement did not help dispel the fears," Mr Aliwa said.
He denied that there was a pre-arranged plot to cause chaos after results, saying the reaction was spontaneous.Mr Aliwa also blamed the media, which he said were relaying different results from Mr Kivuitu's.
Mr Aliwa said that the police force did not have adequate capacity to handle the magnitude of the violence which erupted thereafter.
He said greater challenges faced the police in Kericho following the killing of Ainamoi MP David Too.
He said that police shot at protesters in self-defence as they were cornered.
He said "the police did not have body armour. Had they been protected, we would have had minimal deaths. But the officers shot the attackers to save their lives".
Law review
Mr Aliwa presented a raft of proposals to the force which included the retirement of over-age officers and review of laws regarding police operations to make them conform with current challenges.
"Laws governing the police force are outdated and some of the Acts were enacted before independence and therefore should be changed to match societal and human rights trends. The older officers should try to catch up with the times," he said.
He also said that negative ethnicity witnessed in the allocation of jobs and resources also contributed to the mayhem, adding that the announcement of the results was used by some people as a cover-up to seek redress for perceived injustices.
Mr Aliwa said tension had been experienced long before the General Election.
He denied that oathing ceremonies or militia training took place before the elections, saying initially, the protests were political but later took on a criminal element.
He said business rivalry, land disputes and the perception that certain communities had benefited more than others were among the things that sparked ethnic attacks.
Time off
The Waki Commission, which was on its fourth day in Nyanza, took time off to visit Chepilat Town on the border of Borabu and Sotik districts, which was flattened during the orgy of violence.
Kericho district commissioner Wilson Njega told the commission that the capacity of the provincial administration needed to be increased because the violence had exposed the country's inadequacies in the provision of security.
The DC said that the security forces were handicapped by their small numbers and the fact that most of the roads had been barricaded, barring them access to remote areas.
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