Dear all.

The news of protest was expected.  Half the country is feeling betrayed, let
down, with nowhere to go from here.  The news of the police behaviour was
also expected…why would they have learnt anything from 2007/8 when they
were never held to account for it?

The deaths are tragic.  And everyone who dies should be remembered as a
casualty of the IEBC, a casualty of the Supreme Court.

Devastation is the word I’ve heard most since yesterday’s decision.  We are
devastated.  In the confirmation that people’s votes do not matter.  In the
confirmation that people’s efforts at uncovering, revealing the truth do no
matter.  In the confirmation that electoral reforms, judicial reforms mean
nothing.  In the confirmation that our Constitution means nothing.

To Gladwell and Rajan, thank you for bearing the burden of trying to take
this forward to us.  To the fifty or so people who worked so hard on the
petition…our key leaders and thinkers, the heads of our key organisations,
the team of advocates, their staff, the high school students who worked into
the night, many nights, doing the data entry.  All those volunteers.  All
those who stopped everything in the belief that the people’s votes were
important, that the truth was important.  You all know who you are.  Thank
you  And thank you too to Kethi Kilonzo who presented all that work so
admirably.

Right now, it is hard to believe that it wasn’t in vain.  But we said our
initial expectation was only to get the truth out.  For those who needed,
wanted to hear it, that’s been done.  For those who want the record, find
attached the two judicial scrutiny reports.  Then compare them with the also
attached reports of the AfriCOG agents, who were also in the room.  For the
record.

It is not clear how and where we, as a human rights community, should now
move.  I am sure everybody is making personal and institutional choices.  To
determine our obligations at this point.  To stay in the human rights
community or not.  To stay in the country or not.  To continue to work when
engaging the government is unconscionable, unthinkable.  My choice is this.
I do not accept what the IEBC has done to us.  It was wrong.  I do not
accept what the Supreme Court has done to us.  It was wrong.  I do not
accept that Uhuru Kenyatta is our legitimate President.  He is not.  And I
will spend the next five years conscientiously objecting and resisting in
whatever ways I can.

In the interim, the anger, betrayal, hurt and rage that the half of the
country that didn’t want this must be channeled differently.  Helping do so
is a first obligation.  The destruction of people’s own property, little as
it is, and deaths at the hands of the police is not the way to go.

As for the half of the country that wanted this, the IEBC, the Supreme
Court…I hope this devastation was worth it.  I hope they will find
themselves able to sleep with themselves at night in this bed that they have
made.

Muthoni.

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