 |
| IEBC Chairman Isaac Hassan & Orie Rogo Manduli. PHOTO: COURTESY |
Ms Manduli who was KTN’s Jeff Koinange Live guest on Thursday, June 9 was asked if she has confidence in the IEBC, especially under the supervision of Issack Hassan.
Without hesitation, she responded: “IEBC should have been thrown out as early as yesterday. They are shameless.”
“Can you imagine? People are dying because of them. Even 4-year-olds are getting maimed because of them. Who the hell do they think they are? What makes them think if they are not there, there will be no election?”
Ms Manduli even threatened to mobilize fellow women to the streets to call for the removal of IEBC Commissioners from office.
“Tell them if Raila Odinga and group don’t manage them, I’ll go get them out – with the women of this country; with cooking sticks, we will go.
“These people (allegedly) ate the kuku and nothing has happened. They are actually waiting to crush the bones. In my opinion, they should get out without even being paid anything. There will be no bargaining. We have shed enough blood.”
And asked what she thinks about Issack Hassan as an administrator, Manduli said: “I saw him when he came in. He has now grown bigger – physically. Let him get out. The then government hoped Issack Hassan would be a good man…”
“When I see the rioting going on I weep because I am a mother, and I don’t like bloodshed and I don’t want anyone getting hurt. When I know that the teargas and the stones and the bullets will fall on somebody’s kid, I cringe, I weep before it even falls on them.
Manduli also faulted politicians who are leading Kenyans to the streets over issues that can be negotiated amicably.
“To politicians we are just fodder – we are not human, we have no names, we have no faces – we are just collateral. Their kids don’t go there and get clobbered up, they don’t get stoned, they don’t get shot at. When that 4-year-old was shot – that grandchild of mine, I was finished.”
Ironically, she defends CORD’s anti-IEBC protests.
“We went out there because we want Issack and family out. Issack go out, I am telling you now. You are destined to go out and you are going to leave a terrible legacy. Why didn’t he just go out earlier? And just save everybody that? Because he is going out anyway,” said Ms Manduli.
“So, why prolong it? If he hopes that he is going to have bargaining power, I am telling the president and the leader of opposition not to entertain any negotiation with Issack Hassan.
Imetosha, waende.”
And if an agreement is reached (constitutionally) that IEBC Commissioners should vacate office, what does Ms Manduli advise?
“We (Kenyans) should get nine new commissioners, but parliament should vet them properly. If they can’t stay straight for five years, then we just have to do it every other term,” she concluded.
Pressure from Ms Manduli and sections of the opposition calling for the ouster of electoral commissioners comes at a time when Issack Hassan and team have vowed to stay put.
Issack Hassan last month told the parliamentary Justice and Legal Affairs Committee that he would rather go to jail than resign.
“We are not guilty of anything, and so we will not agree to resign by pleading guilty so that we can get some form of compensation,” said Mr Hassan. “I would rather go to jail.”
CORD however maintains that “Kenyans have rejected the IEBC Commissioners” and that their continued stay at the electoral body had triggered chaotic protests.
No comments:
Post a Comment