6 ex-presidents call for peaceful re-run polls in Kenya

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, along with past presidents of Ghana, Botswana, Tanzania, South Africa and Tunisia, have called for peaceful and fair election in the fresh Kenya Presidential election coming up next month. The six past presidents signed a joint statement describing the August 8, 2017 election and the subsequent annulment on September 1, […]

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, along with past presidents of Ghana, Botswana, Tanzania, South Africa and Tunisia, have called for peaceful and fair election in the fresh Kenya Presidential election coming up next month.

The six past presidents signed a joint statement describing the August 8, 2017 election and the subsequent annulment on September 1, as a watershed in the history of Kenya.

They include Ghana’s John Kufour, Botswana’s Gontebanye Mogae, Tanzania’s Benjamin William Mkapa, Tunisia’s Mohammed Moncef Marzouki and South Africa’s Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe.

Obasanjo’s media aide Kehinde Akinyemi has released the statement in Abeokuta.

It said the events “ordinarily seem innocuous but anybody conversant with the realities on the ground in Kenya would be concerned, hence the need to call for peace in the build-up to the repetition of the Presidential Elections in less than 60 days and immediately after.

The travails and trials experienced in watering the soil of democracy should not always be with the blood of the people of Kenya.

The former presidents also remarked that “civil path” of the main opposition candidate to approach the Supreme Court brought about the annulment  of the elections on the grounds of "illegalities and irregularities".

“The Judiciary lived up to what was expected of it in the Kenya law as a strong institution and a neutral arbiter.  The [election regulator] IEBC has started carrying out the decision of the Supreme Court which we believe will be done to the letter.  We appreciate the IEBC in this respect. We look forward to a consultative process as the IEBC sets in motion the machinery for what should be a transparently free, fair and credible election.

“While we await a detailed judgment as promised by the Supreme Court, we enjoin the two major players in the Kenyan Presidential poll – Kenyatta and Raila – to tread cautiously, shun hate speeches and face their respective electioneering campaigns responsibly in a manner that would encourage faithful and transparent transmission of the actual accounts from the polling stations.”

 “We plead that the two leaders demonstrably commit themselves to the quest for the welfare of their people who they are canvassing for votes to lead. Successive elections and their aftermath in Kenya have elicited more of hate than love and that is not a tenet to be propagated.”

The 10-paragraph statement called on global democrats and “friends of our common humanity not to rest on their oars until both leaders accede to tread on the path of peace and good conscience and to follow the narrow but moral path to govern Kenyans.

“It is imperative that the next election should be seen as free, fair, credible and reflecting the wish and desire of Kenyan people in all aspects. We also plead that all eyes should be on the IEBC, with all assistance possible, towards an orderly polling and a credible one that ensures that technology is not manipulated to benefit either candidate. In this respect, we call on international organisations to which Kenya belongs and especially the UN, AU, EAC, Commonwealth and IGAD to assist in bolstering the sovereignty of the people of Kenya so that what IEBC will transmit in the repeated Presidential Election is transparently the wish of the people of Kenya.

“Peace and justice must patently go together and thereby avoid blood-letting in Kenya as a result of elections.  People of Kenya must live in peace, security and harmony after the elections,” they concluded.