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Poll mudslinging doesn’t seem to
have spared even the UN
Commentary by PETER MWAURA
Publication Date: 1/19/2008
NATION
A full-page announcement published repeatedly this week bearing
the coat of arms has taken to task the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and UN election observers. “You have claimed that
the presidential election was irregular. For the sake of justice
and transparency, can you provide evidence that this is so?” said
the announcement.
“By evidence we do not mean allegations by ODM (Orange Democratic
Movement) leaders, questionable characters and ODM documents. You
should have in your possession forms with signatures that can
stand up for scrutiny by any court of justice in the world.”
The announcement, titled Setting the Record Straight, added: “You
have made powerful allegations; Kenyans want evidence, not
analysis nor biased reports, utterances and opinions. WE ARE
WAITING!” First published on Tuesday, it was repeated up to the
day of writing this commentary. “For the last two days, we have
asked you to provide evidence? KENYANS ARE STILL WAITING!” said
the Thursday edition.
The unrelenting announcement has lumped the UN – traditionally
considered neutral - as a culprit together with nine other
organisations and political activists such as the Law Society of
Kenya and Kenya National Commission on Human Rights chairman Maina
Kiai. It is, however, rhetorical and I would be surprised if any
of the organisations or individuals cared to reply.
But it is an important pointer to the election and post-election
intrigues and machinations that have not spared even the world
organisation. Right from the campaigns to the dispute as to who
won the presidential election, the UN easily became a subject in
the propaganda and mudslinging game. Largely unthanked,
unappreciated and without credit or acknowledgement in the
elections, the UN has become a whipping boy, a scapegoat and a
fall guy all rolled into one.
Ahsante ya punda ni mateke (A donkey’s thanks are its kicks), or
so it seems, when you consider that the UN funded a Sh732 million
programme to ensure that the elections were free and fair.
Interested parties are determined to advance their agenda by hook
or crook, and have taken advantage of the UN’s legitimate
electoral presence.
Consider the controversy surrounding the origin and authorship of
a document which surfaced last week, reportedly the initiative of
Mr Colin Bruce, the country representative of World Bank, a
specialised agency of the UN. The “Principles of Agreement”
document was supposed to have been agreed on between President
Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
The President refused to sign the document when mediator President
John Kufuor of Ghana and African Union chairman took it to him.
The Government later described the document, as published by ODM,
as “a blanket of deceit”. It went on to say that Mr Bruce “has
informed the Government that he personally never drafted any
Principles of Agreement and is not an expert in drawing up such
documents.”
That was not the only sneaky document supposedly written by the
UN.
Another appeared three days earlier in the Financial Times, which
the London newspaper called a leaked internal World Bank memo,
indicating that the UN accepts the Electoral Commission’s ruling
that Mr Kibaki had won the presidential election. The memo,
written by Mr Bruce, cited “strictly confidential oral briefings
and documents” from senior UNDP officials.
The memo was, however, disowned by the director-general of the
United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), Dr Anna Tibaijuka. She
denied that the UN supported President Kibaki’s victory as stated
in the World Bank memo. The UN did not observe the elections and
had no data to help it to take a stand over the results, she said.
“We disassociate ourselves from the falsifications being
circulated by the Financial Times.”
That was not the only falsification circulated by a newspaper that
Dr Tibaijuka has had to deal with. Between December 3 and 5, the
Nairobi Star published two stories and an editorial suggesting
that the UN was campaigning against Mr Odinga. The newspaper said
in the editorial on December 5 that it was concerned that a UN
vehicle was “distributing copies of the faked Raila memorandum of
understanding with Muslims.”
In a newspaper advertisement on December 24, Dr Tibaijuka
categorically denied the allegations. On December 3, the Star had
published the photo of a UN vehicle (registration number 40UN44K)
and claimed in the caption that “the young driver” of the car was
“distributing leaflets” and “was surrounded by a huge crowd of
people”.
Investigations revealed that the driver was a 57-year-old,
grey-haired man, Mr Hasington Njeru. He was sitting in his car
when his barber friend, Mr Emilio Rinchumi, showed him a single
copy of the controversial memorandum. There was no distribution of
leaflets and no crowd surrounding the car.
The published photo was in fact cropped significantly to allow the
caption writer to make allegations that were not supported by the
original picture. The car was also assigned to the World
Meteorological Organisation regional office at Dagoretti Corner,
the same vicinity where the photo was taken.
The officer in charge of the UN information centre in Nairobi, Mr
Nasser Ega-Musa, correctly observed: “It appears that the bruising
and tense campaign will spare no-one or organisation if they could
be used to pummel the opposition.”
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