Sunday, November 14, 2010

Former elections official Muttu dies

By GEKARA-MAYAKA
Posted Saturday, November 13 2010 at 21:00

When Kenya went up in flames after the announcement of the presidential election results on Sunday, December 30, 2007, fingers were pointed at the then Electoral Commission of Kenya.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s party directed its fury at then chairman Samuel Kivuitu and his deputy Kihara Muttu. Mr Muttu died on Wednesday, aged 74.

Though the buck stopped with Mr Kivuitu, his deputy was singled out for blame because he was the commissioner in charge of coordination and tallying.

Indeed, during the tallying of votes at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Mr Muttu consistently found himself on the receiving end of ODM leaders questioning the count.

The soft-spoken lawyer from Mukurwe-ini, Nyeri, was nominated to the commission by President Kibaki’s Democratic Party.

On Saturday, Mr Kivuitu said he was saddened by Mr Muttu’s death.

He described him as a polite and hardworking man.

“As vice-chairman, he helped me run the commission in 2007 when I was unwell after the exit of commissioner Gabriel Mukele,” Mr Kivuitu said.

Mr Mukele, the former vice-chairman, described Mr Muttu as a polite, calculating man who could not easily be drawn into an argument or be irritated.

“Send my condolences to his family.’’

Mr Muttu was Kibaki’s lawyer and friend for many years. He defended Mr Kibaki’s Democratic Party in election petitions arising from the 1992 elections.

He teamed up with veteran lawyer Pheroze Nowrojee to act for Mr Kibaki, then Democratic Party leader, when he challenged the election of President Moi after the return of multi-party democracy in 1992.

However, Mr Kivuitu distanced himself and members of the defunct commission from accusations that they had bungled the election.

“No single commissioner has been held responsible by a court of law for the problems of the 2007 election,” he told the Sunday Nation. Mr Kivuitu seemed to blame junior election officials.

“Just like the minister for Education who receives results from the examination council and announces them, we also received results from returning officers and announced them,” he said.

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