In 48 constituencies, all in President Mwai Kibaki´s support base areas of the country, the results as declared locally do not correspond with those announced by the Nairobi headquarters of the Election Commission of Kenya (ECK). Within ten minutes of releasing the results, Kibaki was sworn in. Violent protests immediately broke out and continue in large parts of the country. Houses have been set ablaze, looting is out of control and the death toll, according to Kenya´s national broadcaster KTN, currently stands at 124. (31-DEC-07)

On the basis of news coverage from the Kenyan newspapers the Daily Nation and the Standard, New York Times, BBC and CNN, supplemented by interviews with human rights defenders in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa, this article has been written by HRH F / Niels Jacob Harbitz. Photo of Kibaki: Radu Sigheti, Reuters.

According to Morris Odhiambo, Executive Director of the human rights organisation Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION) and co-chair of Kenya Election Domestic Observation Forum, the situation is extremely tense. -It is getting worse, and it will get very bad. The violence has spread to large parts of the country, with the death toll rising. There seems to have been a elaborate plan to declare Kibaki president very swiftly and then handle the consequences, adds Odhiambo, who particularly draws attention to the very heavy turnout of police and military personnel right from election day, but ever heavier as the delays in announcing the results began to frustrate both politicians and the people at large. -When the results were finally announced, the ECK offices were barricaded, and all journalists forced to move out. Only state broadcast radio and tv were allowed to remain to air the announcement.

As today´s spontaneous rally in Uhuru park downtown Nairobi was declared illegal, presidential candidate Raila Odinga´s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) announced that there will be ´a million man march´ on Thursday 3 January, for which permission will be sought. Numerous rumours circulate via sms, among them that Odinga was arrested, and that the Chief Commissioner of the Kenyan police and the Kenyan Army´s Chief of Staff have both stepped down. All rumours have been denied by the police.

-Had we been able to receive information freely, there would be no need for such rumours, argues a human rights defender who prefers to remain anonymous. Speaking from Mombasa, on the coast, she adds that she has been forced to keep indoors for the last two days. -The infringements on media feedom are severe. All independent broadcast media have been informed that anything they wish to release must first be ´verified´ by state authororities. In addition, a state house spokesman has announced that cell phone service providers will be asked to intercept messages spreading ´false information´.

While Waruru Wachira, the Chair person of the Media Council of Kenya, has responded that Kenya´s independent media will defy the order to let state authorities sanction every bit of reporting before broadcasting it, reminding that this is in breach not only with international standards of freedom of expression, but also with Kenya´s own constitution and legislation, it is also highly unlikely that companies like Safaricom will obey orders to intercept people´s private messages and conversations. Even so, Safaricom went down for a while immediately after the announcement of the election result. The website of the the national daily newspaper the Standard, subject to attacks on its freedom of expression also in recent years, also appears to be frozen as from yesterday.

-We were satisfied with the technicalities of the voting, adds Jane Onyango, Executive Director of Federation of Women Lawyers FIDA Kenya. -The polling happened pretty much without any irregularities. It is only after the results have finally came out, after long delays, that we have to question the integrity of the ECK. There has been no verification of the results, and reports of photocopied, rather than original forms, used. This is explicitly against our laws. Speaking from Kisumu, western Kenya, Onyango adds that there has been a lot of shooting, especially at night, and that people cannot go out. The whole city is in the dark. There is a total blackout.         

Martin Oluoch, national coordinator of the Kenya Human Rights House Network, adds that ´this wasn´t even rigging, it was pure and simple theft. When the result has been announced, it is legally very difficult to withdraw it and come up with another. This is why it bothers us that Kibaki was sworn in within ten minutes of letting the people know the result. One of our concerns is that with this result, Kibaki will have to take a lot more power to the presidency, at the expense of government and parliament. This will of course make our country far less democratic. We already see the repression, right from the first day of Kibaki´s new presidency. From a human rights perspective, the signs are extremely bad. We are set several years back, to times when our authorities completely lacked legitimacy. 

-As we speak, Oluoch continues, -I can hear gunshots. Security forces, however, appears to be at least in part sympathetic with the people. There is a lot of shooting in the air and use of water cannons, rather than the more heavy-handed treatment that we remember from our former dictator Daniel arap Moi´s entirely loyal police forces. The people´s response is also very clear. There is deep disappointment and dissatisfaction with the result, and an intense commitment to go on protesting until Kibaki steps down and leaves the helm to the rightfully elected candidate.  

With half the vote counted, New York Times, among many international media, reported that Odinga looked to become Kenya´s next president by a sizable margin. As compared to Kibaki and his allies´ 39 %, Odinga and his had 57. If not quite by the same margin, this remained the picture when final results were publicly announced from the various constituencies around te country. Then, when ECK´s head offices declared Kibaki the winner, the whole of three days after the elections, violent protests broke out, protests that only seem to be getting worse, now rapidly adding to the death toll across the country. Even so, the United States and the United Kingdom, both close allies of Kenya, have called for the acceptance of the election result.