Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Kenya Opposition Demands Arrest of Electoral Body Officials



Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, a three-time presidential candidate, called for the arrest of electoral agency officials suspected of taking bribes from a British company that printed voting materials.
Kenyan election-commission officials received “millions of shillings” over an unspecified two-year period from Smith & Ouzman Ltd., Odinga told reporters today in Nairobi, citing a case in London courts investigated by the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office. The British company also printed extra ballot papers for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee coalition, which were used to rig elections held in March 2013, Odinga said.
Jo Cornell, an employee with Smith & Ouzman, declined to comment when contacted by phone today. No one answered the phone at the Nairobi-based headquarters of the Independent and Electoral Boundaries Commission.
Odinga has described last year’s presidential vote as flawed and his political alliance, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy, challenged the outcome in the Supreme Court, which upheld Kenyatta’s victory. CORD is pushing for a national referendum on key issues including electoral reform.
Observers from the European Union and African Union, as well as Kenya’s Elections Observation Group, known as ELOG, which held a parallel results tally, all said the electoral commission managed a credible and transparent vote last year.
“This scandal kills completely the credibility and global standing of our nation,” Odinga said.

Influencing Contracts

Smith & Ouzman and four British nationals, including two of the company’s directors, an employee and an agent, were charged by the SFO with corruption-related offenses for incidents between November 2006 to December 2010, the SFO said in October 2013. The transactions to influence the award of contracts, totaling about 414,000 pounds ($647,869) took place in the African nations of Kenya, Mauritania, Ghana and Somaliland, in Somalia, the SFO said.
Kenyan electoral authorities involved in the scandal should be fired and charges brought against them, said Odinga.
The 2013 elections in East Africa’s largest economy ended a power-sharing arrangement between then-President Mwai Kibaki and Odinga, who was installed in the newly created post of prime minister to end violence following a disputed election in 2007-2008, which left more than 1,100 people dead.
The International Criminal Court has charged Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto with crimes against humanity for their role in organizing the ethnic clashes, a charge they both deny.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Malingha Doya in Nairobi at dmalingha@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net Sarah McGregor, Paul Richardson, Ana Monteiro

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