Wiper Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka with National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah at the Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi for the Bi-partisans talks on September 25, 2023. Image: KEITH MUSEKE
Kenya Kwanza has supported a proposal by Azimio leaders to have a law in place so that election servers are opened conclusion of a general election.
In one of the rarest shows of concurrence, President William Ruto’s troops while appearing before the National Dialogue Committee argued that this would help end the victimization of Kenyans, especially the electoral officers.
“I totally agree with this proposal that we need to make it law that servers be immediately opened after the election so that we conclude these elections conclusively,” said EALA MP Hassan Omar.
“We do not need to repeat ourselves constantly that after every election we are vilifying IEBC staff and Kenyans…in the lead up to the elections we are intimidating them, we are kidnapping them and we are murdering them,” he added.
Former Busia Senator Amos Wako, in his submission, called for a law to be enacted so that it becomes automatic for the servers to be opened.
“The law should be enacted to make servers automatically opened and accessible to everyone after the presidential results which are the final announced…this will even help those who want to file petitions,” said Wako.
Omar who is part of the five-member Kenya Kwanza team in the ongoing talks led by National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah at the same time urged poll losers to accept defeat.
Politicians, he said, have been radicalized to constantly deny the outcome of the results by laying blame on the technology, software and servers yet the results are in the public domain.
In an indirect reference to Azimio leader Raila Odinga, the lawmaker cited the 2002 election in which retired president Uhuru Kenyatta conceded defeat after losing to late president Mwai Kibaki.
The trend which has been set in the country, he said, was not abysmal.
“We need to have a culture of conceding elections when we lose, the issue of big margins is not specified in the Constitution…the only constitutional threshold required is 50 plus one vote and 25 per cent in 24 counties,” he said.
On the audit of the 2022 election results, Omar explained that the results on the portal are “simply a reflection of the server”.
Omar at the same time submitted that elections should not be the work of political parties and politicians alone but rather all stakeholders which he said included the media who he said are interested in the outcome.
Politicians, he said, are insignificant in the process.
By Star