Both PNU and ODM claim victory

• A PNU document says its coalition partner ODM should apologise for alleging that last year’s election was rigged.
• Prof Nyong'o said their stand that ODM won the presidency was vindicated by the America’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) and other observers.

President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity and Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement on Tuesday discounted the Kriegler Commission verdict that it would be difficult to tell who won the election.

Instead, each side claimed victory of its presidential candidate, but quickly resolved that the outcome of 2007 presidential results should be put back and forge ahead in the coalition government.

ODM called the Press to formally react to the Kriegler report and declared that its candidate, now Prime Minister Raila Odinga, won the elections.

However, leaders Henry Kosgey and Anyang’ Nyong’o pledged the party had agreed to move ahead with the coalition Government for the sake of peace in the country.

On its part, PNU in a document obtained by the Nation, maintains that President Kibaki, won the 2007 election fairly.

The document, also a response to the Kriegler report, indicates that the party did not find any evidence suggesting that the presidential election was stolen.

PNU also supported the coalition Government for the sake of national unity and greater good of the country. Both parties supported the implementation of the Kriegler report.

They were reacting to the recommendations of the Kriegler report on the same day former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan issued a statement asking Kenyans to embark on serious electoral reforms to avoid a repeat of mayhem that followed 2007 elections.

Mr Annan, who brokered the accord under the Panel of Eminent African Persons, announced that a consultancy firm has been appointed to monitor the implementation of the recommendations.

The PNU document, titled Talking Points and Position on the Findings of the Independent Review Commission, says that its coalition partner ODM should apologise for alleging that last year’s election was rigged.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta led four MPs from Central Province in calling for an apology from leaders who claimed that last year’s presidential elections were rigged at the KICC.

In a 31-page document detailing PNU’s position on the Kriegler report, the party says: “ODM’s false allegations, echoed by its civil society and international observer supporters, of rigging misled Kenyans into believing that the elections had been stolen.”

Irredeemable

However, the Kriegler report only states that the Independent Review Commission did not find any evidence of rigging at Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

It says the elections were so irredeemably flawed that you could not determine the winner between President Kibaki and Mr Odinga.

At Orange House, Prof Nyong’o, the ODM secretary general, said: “We as a party properly elected by majority of Kenyans will continue to defend the rights of Kenyans and would not be intimidated.”

He said their stand that ODM won the presidency was vindicated by the America’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) and other observers.

The leaders were reacting to remarks made by Mr Kenyatta and PNU leaders that ODM should apologise to Kenyans now that Mr Justice Kriegler’s Independent Review Commission did not find any aspects of rigging at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

However, Prof Nyong’o and Mr Kosgey said ODM would respect the decision by its leader – Prime Minister Odinga and that of President Kibaki – to forge ahead with the coalition Government.

Both accused the previous Government and the Electoral Commission of Kenya of mismanaging and rigging the presidential election in favour of PNU.

Prof Nyong’o, the Medical Services minister, argued that if the Government did not mismanage the ECK and mobilise State resources in favour of PNU, there would have been no problems.

But PNU states that ODM, despite being the principal complainant, failed to make any case in support of their rigging allegations during the Kriegler hearings.

Spokesman George Nyamweya said PNU’s stand remained that the presidential poll was not rigged but was mismanaged.

“We concur with the recommendations in the report and have taken a stand on them. This has also been communicated to our members,” Mr Nyamweya told the Nation by telephone.

Vindicated

Prof Nyongó dismissed Kriegler’s findings that there was no rigging at KICC, arguing that IREC did not study alterations that went on there.

ODM representatives at the commission dissented on the findings as well. The party maintained there were alterations on results submitted at KICC and its own investigations as well as findings by NDI and other observers vindicated its stand.

The Kriegler report was released last week.