Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, initially ignored the repeated advice from former President John Mahama, along with former South Africa President, Thabo Mbeki, to resort to the Supreme Court.
The Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Governance, Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, who was an observer during the Kenya’s August polls, revealed the Raila Odinga did not trust the former presidents and “rather accused them of being friends or sympathisers of [the incumbent] Kenyatta.”
This indication came as part of his response to the sentiment that there were shortcomings in the international observers’ processes after Kenya’s Supreme Court annulled the result of August’s presidential election after hearing Raila Odinga’s petition.
John Mahama led the Commonwealth observer mission for the Kenya polls
Dr. Akwetey recounted that international observers and their leaders could neither investigate the hacking claims made by Raila Odinga or stop the declaration of election results.
“The two leaders however engaged the IEBC [Kenya’s electoral body] and reported back to observers and the international media the IEBC had rejected the allegations by Raila & Co. Prez Mahama and Mbeki repeatedly advised Raila & Co to resort to the Supreme Court to deal with their claims,” he said.
“…Raila & Co initially rejected the two Prezs advice and rather accused them of being friends or sympathisers of Kenyatta. But the leaders maintained their composure and their stand that the elections as observed were transparent and credible. But doubts about the credibility of the results ought to be sorted out in the SC, which was empowered to scrutinise the issues being raised by Raila & Co.”
It was only after Raila Odinga’s call for a nationwide strike in protest “flopped” that the opposition leader resorted to the Supreme Courts, possibly sparing Kenya some post-election violence, according to Dr. Akwetey.
“It is a good thing that Raila &Co eventually went to the Supreme Court as they had earlier been advised. By eventually respecting the advice of Prez Mbeki and Mahama to pursue justice in the SC, Raila and Co saved Kenya from explosive post-elections violence. Both those who insisted on the SC route and those who acted accordingly have been vindicated.”
The Kenya Supreme Court judgment on Friday held that the election was marred by irregularities and was not according to the Constitution. It thus ordered the Electoral Commission to organise a fresh poll in 60 days.
Source: Citifmonline.com
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President Mahama needs to go back to God and genuinely confess any sin of omission or commission against Ghanaians and ask for forgiveness from God, otherwise ....
I wonder if incompetent John Mahama Kanazoe and his group can go back and observe the re-run...... They have no credibility left. Kenya opposition will not trust them. Kenyan judges are bold and have two balls unlike Ghanaian ones who sat on the 2012 case here.
the oppositin leading is saying that the observer groups were supporting the ruling government, no wonder the election was rigged, shame to mahama and mr, akwetey, from gh pp
both john maham and mr afwtey must face international court of justice, why do u declared a rigged election as free and fair, shame to you, the world have seen u, this is what u do ghana and god have disgraced you, no one will respect u, again, the opposition party in kenya must be given the presidency be course the president rigged the election, shame to ghana delegates, get ready to face international court for aiding and abating rigged election in kenya, fooooooooooools from africa people
Of course, Mahama's expectation was that the Kenya supreme court judges will behave like their Ghanaian counterparts - shun all evidence and pronounce Kenyata the winner. If he had known this will be the outcome, he would have simply advised Odinga to accept the results in good faith
Dr Akwetey's (who was also an observer at Kenya's polls) defense of John Mahama that the leaders of the observer groups could neither investigate the hacking claim by Odinga nor stop the declaration of the results. So if this is what Dr Akwetey claims, why then did John Mahama go ahead to say, "we (observers) have followed the WHOLE PROCESS (not part of it) and wish to congratulate all on the process thus far." Which means either Dr Akwetey is being disingenuous or John Mahama is plainly incompetent by his own words. Dr Akwetey be humble and accept that all of you (observers) were wrong and stop trying to defend the indefensible.