Kenya is preparing for a repeat presidential election on Oct 26. Photo/FILE.
NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 21- The Government says it is investigating an elaborate scheme by a section of the National Super Alliance leaders and renegade foreigners to subvert the constitution and the rule of law by sabotaging the repeat election set for Thursday.
Government Spokesman Eric Kiraithe says the strategy is to bribe the compromised office holders in the Judiciary and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission as well as use violence to prevent Kenyans from voting.
“The objective of the conspiracy is the capture of state power without following the imperatives of the constitution of Kenya 2010,” Kiraithe told journalists at a media briefing Saturday.
Kiraithe said the plan to use unlawful violence involves acquisition of illegal firearms, issuing them to hired criminals and using them to injure and killing vulnerable members of the society and blame the killings on the government.
He said recent riots in parts of Nairobi, Kisumu and Homa Bay is part of the wider strategy which intends to spread fear among innocent members of the Luo and rally them behind the plotters.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has warned of tough action on anyone intimidating IEBC officials and assured Kenyans willing to participate in the repeat election of maximum security, even as NASA leader Raila Odinga vowed to boycott the exercise as a candidate and has already urged his supporters to keep off.
“No police officer in this Country is available to shoot a 2 year old, a 10 year old and to throw teargas into nursery school if it happens by mistake that it occurred we will take responsibility and we are going to be accountable,” said Kiraithe, adding that the scheme is well elaborate and is already being effected starting from the IEBC “where commissioners are made to resign at a critical time of the election and making public statements that the commission is unable to conduct credible elections.”
“With the IEBC the first tactic is to influence the commissioners to resign and to commit them make statements that imply that the commission is not able to conduct elections on various excuses, the scheme is in full gear and one commissioner has already betrayed Kenya,” the Government Spokesman said.
On the part of the Judiciary, Kiraithe said judges had been influenced to give court orders and interpretations of law which will ensure that holding a presidential election in Kenya becomes continuous unjustifiable.
He however, said that the Government is carrying out investigations and the conspirators will soon be arrested and charged regardless of their social or political status.
In his address during Mashujaa Day celebrations in Nairobi on Friday, President Kenyatta said he would “not allow a repeat of the painful past where lives and properties were lost. We must therefore stand up and say no to any misleading leader out to plunge Kenya into chaos.”
He urged citizens to respect the right to vote or to abstain, and said “security organs have been enhanced and appropriately deployed to maintain law and order”.
Odinga pulled out of the election last week, denouncing the election commission for failing to make sufficient reforms to avoid the “irregularities” that led the first vote to be cancelled.
He has said he is convinced that the August 8 vote was rigged, and that plans are afoot to steal the new election as well.
At a rally attended by thousands in his western rural home of Bondo, Odinga vowed once again Friday that there would be “no election”, though he urged his supporters not to turn to violence.
“I want to plead with you, the differences we have with Kenyatta should not be made personal. Those are our differences. You should not attack each other because of that,” Odinga said.
He said he would announce “the way forward” on the eve of the election, having previously called for mass protests on the day of the vote.
Although Odinga officially remains on the ballot, his call for supporters to stay away has further tarnished the credibility of an election after top election officials raised the alarm.
On Wednesday the head of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Wafula Chebukati said he could not guarantee a free, fair and credible poll, citing interference from political leaders and internal divisions.
That came just hours after one of his seven commissioners, Roselyn Akombe, quit and fled the country, denouncing the vote as a “mockery to electoral integrity”.
The near-daily twists and turns have gripped the nation with anxiety over how the election will turn out.
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