Members of the civil society meeting under the auspices of Kenyans for Peace With Truth and Justice (KPTJ) have warned to institute private prosecution against staff and various commissioners of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK).

In a petition presented to the Attorney General Amos Wako on Friday 15 by lobby members Advocate Harun Ndubi and AfriCog chief executive Gladwell Otieno among others, KPTJ has demanded that the Attorney General follows up on their complaint to the Commissioner of Police, Major General Hussein Ali, through the Officer Commanding Police Station of Kilimani Police Station regarding what they termed as several offences they believe were committed by various Commissioners and staff of the ECK.

The complaint names offences relating to Rule 6 of the ECK code of conduct contained in Cap 7 on national assembly and presidential elections, abuse of office, making and delivering of false certificates by public officers, neglect of official duty, making and publishing false information by persons employed in the public service, disobedience of statutory duty, forgery, and coining.

Other offences relate to counterfeiting, forgery of judicial or official documents, uttering false documents and conspiracy to commit felony. All these offences covered by various sections of Cap 63 on the penal code. KPTJ also alleges that there was was subversion of the rule of law and that the public was misled, contrary to relevant sections of the public officers’ ethics act.

Speaking to press after presenting the petition to the attorney general’s personal assistant, Harun Ndubi said they were making the choice of instituting private prosecution against the said parties following information given to them “by four of the five domestic observers allowed into the verification process at the ECK’s headquarters the night before the announcement of the supposed presidential results.”

He said given the “appalling and saddening” human rights violations arising from the violence that the announcement triggered, the lobby was of the view that accountability must be sought –not only from those who instigated and supported the violence but from those that apparently provided the trigger for it.

Ms. Gladwell Otieno applauded the fact that the Kofi Anan –led mediation team has agreed to an independent investigation into the counting and tallying of the presidential vote. “ We applaud that agreement as one of the positions we put forward to the mediation team was that the entire country needed to know exactly what happened to our presidential vote in order to be able to put it behind us.” She said, adding that they remained concerned about questions of individual accountability. Ms. Otieno said there should be no impunity for the people involved in instigating and supporting the violence just as there should be no impunity for those whop are proven to have participated in providing the trigger for it.

In the petition, KPTJ has asked the AG to follow up on their earlier complaint to the Commissioner of Police by ensuring claims made in their complaint are investigated with view to prosecuting any and all commissioners and staff of the ECK where evidence is found sufficient to prove culpability for the above offences.