Watch the hearings live: Citizen TV; or the other Kenyan networks.
At 9am tomorrow [Wednesday] in Nairobi, the Kenyan Supreme Court is scheduled to announce a key ruling. The issue is whether or not the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will be required to produce for scrutiny the actual voter registration lists used in the voting.
[Update: On Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court denied the production request from AfriCOG as time-barred, saying it needed to have been filed with the original petition. Once again, the Court seems to be treating this as ordinary civil litigation subject to procedures but without the months or years that would ordinarily be involved in developing the facts of the case. The hearing has begun and the case will be decided without much evidence, which at some level was always inevitable given the time frame and the position of the IEBC as party litigant rather than a neutral body that would willingly cooperate with scrutiny.]
The issue is before the Court due to the vigorous opposition, played out over two days in preliminary hearings, by the IEBC and the proponents of its March 9 “final results” to a request for these public records from AfriCOG. On Monday afternoon, the Court heard the complaints of the IEBC side that AfriCOG had not formally served copies on enough of the various lawyers for the government and the other respondents for parties who are not directly implicated in the custody of the records. Thus, more copies served, arguments were held this morning, with decision tomorrow.
Here is CapitalFM on the procedural arguments against production: “AFRICOG plea for voter register opposed.”
The Supreme Court will deliver its ruling on Saturday, 30 March 2013′ at a still undetermined time; the US Embassy has advised Americans to hide just in case? Neither the US Embassy nor the State Department and certainly not the White House has had anything to say in public since March 10th and US Citizen communications to Gigiri are either answered nor acknowledged. Meanwhile the stealthy putsch to make the President-elect the defacto head of state without reference to the Constitution or The Supreme Court continues without media notice or comment? Whether the silent putsch will become too obvious to ignore depends on Saturday’s judicial ruling and whether the disappointed parties will go to the people for any appeals. The court proceedings have yielded much information and facts all parties seem to accept which show that the elections held on March 4th were inno way free, fair and credible; $240 million tossed out the window and we’re still lost in Africa waiting for a sign.
The Obama Administration has shown no interest in the legitimate concerns of US Citizens stuck in Kenya and seems to have ceded the moral high ground to Dr Jendayi Frazer who has been consistently advocating policies that favour Uhuru Kenyatta; she has become the acceptable face of foreign interference in sovereign Kenya’s internal affairs!
It has been suggested that this may have been the world’s most expensive election to date. Yet, as you note, in spite of the heavy investment by American taxpayers our government seems to be sitting on its hands while being “slapped around” by Dr. Frazer and others on behalf of Uhuru Kenyatta. It does seem hard to see the value for either country in a lot of this.
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