As Ugandans shake their heads at how the Presidential Elections were shamelessly rigged. Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sung have basically had the cases against them thrown out at the International Criminal Court La Hague today. The case as we know relates to the 2007 elections and subsequent violence that saw 2000 Kenyans loose their lives, property destroyed, and about 100,000 Kenyans displaced. I recall how the Kenyan disaster started. Electoral theft. I was at home one day in Nairobi watching a live broadcast on television. It was their Electoral Commission Chief reading the 2007 election results as they came in. He had already been doing that for two days by that time. I used to spend holidays at home in Nairobi and sometimes Mombasa as well whenever I could get time off United Nations Peace-Keeping field work. That day, as the EC chief read the results, I recall a gentleman (an MP) standing up waving a declaration of results form for his constituency. He was insisting that the Commissioner had just read wrong results for that constituency. The Elections Chief was visibly disturbed by this intervention as the gentleman came closer to show him the correct results. The Commissioner refused to stop reading the results arguing that they could check this later. The gentleman refused to accept this arguing that the Commissioner wants to continue reading fake results. A few other people joined him and a scuffle ensued as the disgruntled MP then grabbed the microphone. The Commissioner was then whisked away by police officers to safety. This was all happening live on all TV and radio stations, so the whole country was watching. The Commissioner (I can't recall his name but I know he later apologized profusely) was actually taken to an office upstairs at the International Conference Center building from where, rather than continue reading incoming results, he immediately declared Mwai Kibaki winner. The incumbent was then also hurriedly sworn in twenty minutes after that declaraction, even before the press could get to State House from the nearby conference center, and even though an official national ceremony had been scheduled (with parade preparations ongoing) for two days later at the national stadium. International observers were first to confirm that results for another 50 constituencies were fraudulent. These were places where they had monitored voting and had copies of result forms. Therefore the tallying at the national level proved to be the point at which that election was stolen. The night before, from being over a million votes behind at results reading closure, Mr. Kibaki was suddenly leading by over a million votes when tallying resumed the next morning. This was declared totally irrational by many observers. That is when they started scrutinizing the final results broadcast more seriously. These are the events as I remember that sparked what is now known as the Kenya Post- Election Violence 2007 - 2008. A brave gentleman stood up, alone, and directly challenged electoral fraud live on TV. Kenyans should publicly recognize him for that courageous act regardless of what he has become or which party he belongs to today. I used to have a favourite orange tourist t-shirt those days. So I found myself being greeted by Kenyans thinking I was a supporter of the Orange for Democratic Change party whose victory was stolen that year. That's how I have since become Mr. Raila Odinga's supporter. Nothing to do with the man, his ethnicity or his policies. I became his supporter first by gleeful coercion by Kenyans, but also by sympathy for someone I had seen being wronged. Meanwhile, the charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy were mostly about incitement. I applaud their courage to face the process. Had they.not, they would have easily become international pariah's together with their beautiful country. That is the trap that awaited them had they refused to cooperate. Today they stand as gentlemen who have at least cleared their names. They are also in authority positions to see that the victims get justice. What I am 100% sure about is that if someone hadn't attempted to steal that 2007 election, the spontaneous nation-wide eruption of violence that started immediately with the scuffle for the microphone live on all TV broadcasts leading to 2000 people loosing their lives, 6000 injured, countless others displaced, and property destroyed, that violence wouldn't have occurred if the polls hadn't been rigged by Mr. Mwai Kibaki & associates. And that is why it is important to note that Mzei Kibaki, while living comfortably today, has clearly evaded summons to answer ICC Justice.
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