The task was made clear to everyone: “Make me the president or make me nothing”
The IEBC results are revealing the very crafty ways in which the August 9, 2022 election was rigged. Believe it or not, but the elaborate rigging started years ago.
Here are some pointers:
✅ The UDA leader, who has always been madly ambitious to rule this country, broke ranks with the President immediately after their re-election in 2017
✅ He immediately started planning on how to become president at all costs
✅ Through a combination of bribery, blackmail, coercion and sweet promises, the UDA leader took control of key institutions of government
✅ As the maxim goes, elections are not determined by those who cast the vote but by those who count the votes. Ruto, therefore, sought to control the IEBC. Fortunately, his man Davis Chirchir had already hired key ICT staff at the electoral body
✅ He also hired an ex-NIS senior officer from his community and made him in charge of intelligence. Because money was not a problem in UDA at that time, he in turn hired operatives from Uganda, Nigeria, Belarus, Croatia, South Africa, Sudan and Somalia
✅ The campaign also needed the police and security people. They recruited mostly rogue ex-police who had been fired and a few serving officers who are known to be greedy
✅ Communication was going to be very important in the campaign. Fortunately, Ruto had inherited the entire disloyal and discredited Presidential Strategic Communication Unit professionals when he fell out with the president. He therefore controlled the likes of Dennis Itumbi, Eric Ngeno, David Mugonyi, Emmanuel Tallaam, and the like
✅ Hussein Mohamed, one of Kenya’s best journalists, who had left Citizen TV in a huff, and had asked Ruto some serious questions during his heyday as a news anchor, was approached, hired and given a down-payment of Ksh 50m to sweeten the deal. Wanjohi Githae, a former Nation Editor, was also recruited and given a senior position and a bunch of money
✅ The task was made clear to everyone: Make me the president or make me nothing
✅ They crafted a message that was full of nothing yet very easy on the tongue. They called it “Bottom Up.” The truth is that the slogan had neither UP nor BOTTOM. It is hollow inside. It was so empty that not even the UDAlibans could explain it. They still can’t tell you what it is
✅ But the cheap messaging was just for deception. The actual rigging was taking place in the realm of the tangible. Case in point: Fixing the ballot
✅ IEBC had contracted Smartmatic, a company with a dubious past and a record of unsuccessful elections in various countries. But Smartmatic, although ethically challenged, was not the real problem. The real issue was in Greece
✅ IEBC had hired a security printing firm by the name of Inform P Lykos. This company was corrupted to print excess ballot papers for all the positions. The idea was to beat any court system requiring the verification of the authenticity and validity of ballot papers. To transport the papers, IEBC officials made numerous trips to Greece to “inspect” the printing
✅ Ruto’s tours to inspect the printing of papers in Greece were disguised as “innocent” visits to Turkey and Dubai. He was accompanied by Oscar Sudi. This was coordinated by Ruto’s righthand man, a Kalenjin veterinary doctor known as Dr. Muge who is a British citizen and international money launderer
✅ The visitors would then return with ballot books tacked in carry-on bags. Other batches of excess printing papers were shipped through Uganda and South Sudan, then brought into the country on donkey-back. On the Somalia side, remnants of the Farmaajo regime allied to Aden Duale and pirates’ lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi used Al-Shabaab couriers to bring the papers into the country
✅ Rigathi Gachagua hired South Sudan refugees in Kenya to mark the ballots in different houses in South C. The rationale was that Kenyans could not be trusted that’s why they opted to use vulnerable refugees. The refugees were threatened with death and deportation if they dared expose the plan
✅ On polling day, the ballots were stuffed in boxes all over Mt. Kenya region to make it look as if the party was very popular, in a bid to humiliate Uhuru Kenyatta whom both Ruto and his running mate hate with a passion. At Mutomo polling station, next to Ichaweri, it was stuffing on steroids
✅ Only UDA candidates got the ballot top up. Not even candidates running on other parties allied to Kenya Kwanza were spared. The likes of Kabogo (Tujibebe), Moses Kuria (CCK), Irungu Nyakera (Farmers party), and Wambora etc. were not spared. The instructions to rig them out were given by Rigathi Gachagua with the blessings of Ruto
✅ During the counting, computer hackers from Nigeria, Uganda, United Kingdom, Croatia and Venezuela were deployed to hack various media houses, IEBC servers and to eavesdrop on security conversations
✅ However, the evil schemers failed to contend with Kenyan security apparatus, which is one of the best. In fact, it is the best. They managed to outsmart the evil scheme but not before the virulent hackers managed to bring down media houses on Thursday afternoon
✅ All in all, government officials were able to defend the credibility of the election.
