ODM Hate campaign

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) orchestrated the 2007 election chaos in Kenya. That is the verdict by some of the knowledgeable party's MPs from the Rift Valley.

According to the MPs, ODM planned the pre-election and post election
Mayhem including "mass action" that led to ethnic cleansing and refusal to accept unfavourable presidential election results of the December 2007 General Election. Five North Rift MPs led by Chepalungu MP Isaac Ruto told a press conference at Parliament buildings that ODM's Pentagon must have deliberated and endorsed "mass action, which led to Kenya's slaughtering each other".

The Chepalungu MP is on record as saying Raila never won the 2007 presidential race.

In his latest challenge, Ruto called on Raila to hand over the minutes of Pentagon meetings prior and after the fateful elections to the International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocambo to determine the ODM involvement in the chaos.

The MPs stopped short of owning up a confidential executive brief on the "positioning and marketing of the Orange Democratic Movement and the People's President", Hon Raila A. Odinga, which put in place an elaborate campaign strategy that was implemented and continues to be followed to the letter. Tourism minister Najib Balala and water and irrigation counterpart Charity Ngilu, who were in the ODM Pentagon said the party organ had no minutes and mass action was intended to be a peaceful demonstration. However, the executive brief by the ODM strategists, led by party secretary general Anyang' Nyong'o, endorsed hate campaign and ethnic hostility naming Kikuyu, Kamba and Kisii as targets. It also called for the rejection of "unfavourable election results".

ODM subsequently flooded the media and mobile telephones, with claims that election would be rigged to favour Party of National Unity (PNU) candidate Mwai Kibaki. The first claim was that President Kibaki had appointed partisan Electoral Commissioners to aid his re-election campaign. These commissioners, Raila alleged, would appoint a set of equally partisan election officials in Nairobi and at polling stations countrywide to sabotage the voting and results of the General Election.

Following much rig marole and finger pointing over the reappointment of disgraced Electoral Commission Chairman, Samuel Kivuitu, whose term was in any case renewed, Raila then claimed a conspiracy to alter voter registers and to do away with the black book to rig out Orange Democratic Movement voters. He even said his name was missing in a Kibera register. Perhaps the most dramatic was the claim of a government ploy to print parallel ballot papers in Belgium.

The allegations of rigging were addressed by Electoral Commission of Kenya and Steve Ouzman Ltd, the British ballot printers, and found to be without factual foundations. Was Raila a man who would accept election results in the spirit of asiekubali kushindwa si mshindani? No! There were several indicators that he would not. The most evident indicator that Raila may have been preparing Kenyans for a post-election protest was his militant stance, evident in language and attitude.

His words during the launch of his development plan at Uhuru Park, were telling. We (ODM) shall attack the enemy (Kibaki supporters) from every direction. We shall launch a simultaneous attack from the land, the air and sea, until we secure victory. When former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressed these sentiments, he was speaking in the context of the Second World War.

The introduction of Dick Morris, architect of the Ukraine Orange Revolution into the ODM campaign, another less than subtle indication of militant intent. Morris' strategy in the Ukraine was to flood the streets with flag-carrying protesters after the election. Raila's rigging chorus was a reflection of a student who had learned his lessons well. Though a peoples' revolution may in theory have sexy ring tones and may sound noble as rhetoric before an excited crowd of supporters, many now know only too well the price of impatience. Over the years, Kenya's democracy has been inconsistent. Raila was branded as the peoples president and not by accident.

Unlike Kalonzo and Kibaki, Raila refused to state that he will accept defeat if beaten. The plot was simple. On 28th December when the results were announced, Raila rejected the results and ODM described the results as rigged. Raila then called out for rejection of the results and for civil disobedience mass action. That is when Orange goons , who had been intimidating people, took to the streets setting off street fights with all and sundry. They even uprooted a section of the Kenya- Uganda railway line in Kibera.

The rest of peaceful Kenyans were generally at home, and with no bone to pick with anybody, did not fight ODM until blood letting in parts of the Rift Valley, Nyanza, Nairobi and Coast provinces got out of hand. In the subsequent reprisal by both the security forces and outlawed Mungiki, more than 1,500 lives were lost - once the rest of Kenyans realized what was happening, and rose up to meet ODM goons head on to defend democracy.

Kenya had made great gains in the expansion of democracy the past five years. It was a great shame to lose the ground Kenya had gained in the name of change. The recovery pace has been slow three years down the chaotic lane.

Evidence also shows that ODM received massive influx of funding locally and internationally from partisan contributors to finance the mayhem.

This is all in public domain and only the ICC will give us the facts.

It would help in these with this knowledge give it to ICC during the full trials.

But one thing is clear-elections were stolen and chaos resulted while the CIC (commander in chief) slept.

He is the most guilty of if not commission,omission which are the same in that they both resulted in loss of lives and property.

There are many who are still free but should face trials,but again Kenya failed to set up a local tribunal.That is why Kenyans support the work of ICC as was supported by the MPs including Ruto who thought that we have until 2090 to get to these international criminals