The Electoral Commission could not have determined the winner of the Presidential election from the flawed results received from different constituencies, one of the biggest group of poll observers in the Kenyan General Election said Friday.  | | Kenya Human Rights Commission chairman Maina Kiai and Ms Muthoni Wanyeki at a press conference at Panafric Hotel, Nairobi after members of the Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice released a report on last year’s General Election. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI | They detailed for the first time the numerous anomalies which have discredited the elections outcome and restated that the disputed tallying of the Presidential outcome at the ECK headquarters was the main cause of the violent protests sweeping Kenya today. A report compiled by more than 20 non-governmental organisations and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights under the umbrella body, Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice, says there were major irregularities that make it difficult to determine who won the General Election. The report titled Countdown to Deception: 30 Hours that Destroyed Kenya uses eyewitness accounts of some election observers who were present at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre between December 29 and 30 to support their verdict. Returning officers Mr Julius Melli of the Association of Professional Societies of East Africa, said they noticed discrepancies in the results announced at the constituencies and those announced at the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) headquarters. “We also saw some returning officers filling the Form 16A at the headquarters, something that should have been done at the constituency level,” said Mr Melli during an international media press conference at Panafric Hotel. He said some ECK commissioners and staff who were part of the conspiracy became hostile to observers who raised questions in the tallying room. “Some of them refused to allow us to scrutinise constituency files and even complained about our presence,” Mr Melli said. The report, distributed to the media says a number of statutory documents for constituencies, namely forms 16, 16A and 17A, had serious anomalies as some had no signatures of the returning officers, others were not countersigned by party agents, while in several instances only photocopies of the forms were available. “ECK commissioners announced constituency results without verifying their authenticity with the statutory documentation,” the document adds. Based on the investigations, the group said it could not be determined who the election. “We still consider President Kibaki to be serving his first term in office since the Constitution does not allow a presidential vacuum,” said Ms Muthoni Wanyeki of the Kenya Human Rights Commission. Precipitated violence The controversial presidential election precipitated violence in some parts of the country leading to more than 500 deaths and over 250,000 people displaced. ECK chairman Mr Samwel Kivuitu declared President Kibaki the winner but later said he was not sure who won the election. The report comes a day after the Commonwealth Observer Mission cast doubts on the General Election, saying its credibility was in question. Other teams that have raised questions about the counting and tallying are the European Union, the East Africa Community and domestic observers. After releasing the report, Mr Kiai was whisked away through the back-door after a group of armed policemen manned the hotel exit checking all vehicles that left the hotel. Earlier, providing a postmortem analysis, Mr Ndii said the variance between Presidential and parliamentary ballots in the election was 455,667 votes. He said the variance comprised 325,000 votes in 130 constituencies, where presidential tally exceeded parliamentary tally, equivalent to 3.3 per cent of the total valid presidential votes and 130,547 in 69 constituencies where the reverse is the case. Suspicious votes “In view of the fact that the gap between President Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga as per the ECK results is 231,628 it is self-evident that suspicious votes were enough to alter the presidential outcome,” said Mr Ndii. The report says provisional results were telephoned in and even though the ECK called back the returning officers to ensure the results indeed came from them, most of the officers phoned in different results from what they had given in person at KICC. Although the ECK regulations (Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act Cap 7 of 2007) stated that the commission shall not accept results that showed voter turnout of 100 per cent and above, the document adds that ECK commissioners allowed returning officers who had returns of over 100 per cent “to correct them”. It cited Maragwa constituency which had a voter turnout of 115 per cent. The returning officer was allowed to reduce it to 85.24 per cent at KICC. In some cases, most returning officers did not arrive with proper documentation yet they were allowed to prepare documents at KICC. “This was the case for Kipipiri, Starehe, Kinangop, Garsen, Turkana Central, Turkana North and Kajiado North.” | 
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