CORD Press Statement of 24 April 2014

COALITION FOR REFORMS AND DEMOCRACY PRESS STATEMENT, 24TH APRIL 2014 

Fellow Kenyans, it is now more than one year since we went to the polls to elect new leadership for our beloved country. Being the opposition coalition and in exercise of our constitutional mandate we wish to state as follows;

1. That this being the first election under the new constitutional dispensation, Kenyans had high hopes and expectations that there will be a paradigm shift in management of public affairs. To their consternation however, the past one year has only yielded so much from the past, regurgitated the old bureaucratic and corruption networks, bred a new cycle of crippling unemployment and condemned millions of Kenyans to abject poverty through unconscionable policies that have driven the cost of living well beyond the means of ordinary Kenyans. Indeed there is no adjective - at least not one that could be legitimately printed in these pages - that does justice to just how appalling this one year has been.

2. That the security situation in the country has oscillated from bad to worse under the watch of the jubilee government. Whereas CORD abhors terrorism in all its manifestations, we take exception with the brutal and inhumane manner in which the government is undertaking the security operation. Ethnic profiling of members of the Somali community is in itself an illegality in law and runs against well-established doctrines of international human rights law and conventions that Kenya is a party to. Similarly we decry the escalating insecurity across the country under the watch of our security forces. We demand for a well thought out security mechanism that will secure our homeland and international borders.

3. That the proposed digital registration of persons is another conduit to syphon public funds through dubious tendering process that have become so reminiscent of the jubilee administration. While the idea could be noble in the long run, we take exception with its timing and implementation mechanism. The Kshs.8 billion projected for this kind of project has not been factored in the budget neither has the senate and the national assembly been afforded an opportunity to deliberate on the matter. It is even telling, that IEBC, the very institution that tragically failed in utilizing technology despite expending billions of tax payers’ money is being proposed as the implementer of the process. We take this as an immoral reward of the commission for bungling the election

4. That we applaud the standard group for its in-depth investigative journalism in unearthing the folly and rot of the bungled march 4th 2013 elections. Indeed the expose has vindicated the long held position by the Coalition that the March 4th elections were bungled and as indicated in the Jicho Pevu expose, no candidate garnered the required constitutional threshold of 50% +1 yet IEBC manufactured a set of its own results and a winner. As nature would have it, the ghosts of the bungled elections still loom large, not even the belated public mechanizations’ by IEBC can wish them away. The truth will ultimately prevail.

5. It is now clear that the “Independent” Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) contrary to its name never exercised independence and impartiality during the March 2013 elections. It instead blatantly mortgaged its Independence to security and business interests hell-bent in seeing a jubilee government in power. The courage exhibited by Mohammed Ali and John Allan Namu is so strong that it even overwhelms impunity in all its manifestations. In furtherance of this;

• CORD will in the pendency of the current session of parliament sponsor a bill in parliament which among other things will seek to devolve IEBC and fix other far reaching electoral reforms aimed at ensuring that, never ever again will Kenyans ever go into an election where their votes count for nothing.
• CORD is also in the process of compiling a list of IEBC officers who served as returning officers in the last general elections; where it has been reported and there is evidence that form nos. 34 and 35 are missing, with the view to holding them individually responsible for losing those forms and thus taking them to court for Professional negligence among other crimes of omission and commission against the Kenyan people as envisaged under the Elections Act.

6. That CORD will continue to proactively check the government and secure public interest through the two chambers of parliament. We commit to strongly work together with other actors such the civil society and the media in protecting public interest and offering alternative policies to develop our country.

SIGNED
Hon Kalonzo Musyoka _______________________
Party Leader, WDMK

Hon Moses Wetangula ________________________
Party Leader FORD-K

Hon Sen Anyang Nyong’o _______________________
Ag. Party Leader ODM