Obama likely to take stern stand on KenyaUpdated 2 hr(s) 6 min(s) ago By Juma KwayeraA new report to be discussed in the coming weeks by the US Congress profiles rigging in Kenyan politics as endemic. It says the malpractice reached alarming proportions in the 2007 elections when President Kibaki was controversially declared winner with the backing — initially — of Washington.The report by Congressional Research Service,a US government agency,was released on Thursday and going by tradition,when Congress discusses it,it will most likely form the basis for President Barack Obama’s country-specific policy on Kenya.Titled Kenya: Current Conditions and the Challenges Ahead,it was published in the same week US Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson was in the country to deliver his government’s stern warning to Nairobi to speed up constitutional,police and judicial reforms or risk being shunted by Washington.Reached for comment on how the report will define Washington’s relations with Nairobi,US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger said it would have a bearing on his government’s policy. 'They (such reports) are used by Congress but is hard to tell how influential they are,' the envoy said.Similar findings on Ethiopia’s disputed 2005 General Election chaos in which more than 800 people were killed by soldiers resulted in Congress enacting the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act,2007,compeling Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to improve his government’s appalling human rights record,democracy,governance and rule of law.The Obama administration has indicated it will implement this law in full and as a consequence the Ethiopian leader has hinted that he might not run in the polls scheduled for next year. Sources,who sat through the meetings Carson had with President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga,confirmed to The Standard on Sunday the report has bearings on Washington’s relations with Kenya. The sentiments are also echoed in the terse letter,whose thrust was speedy and full implementation of Agenda Four of National Dialogue and Reconciliation Talks,Carson delivered to the two principals. In the letter,the US President warned: 'We are increasingly concerned by the lack of movement on key issues: The constitutional review process is moving slowly at best,the special tribunal has not yet been set up,decisive steps against corruption have yet to be undertaken,and reform of the police and Judiciary has not yet been carried out.' The findings,although not new,emphasise political and economic reforms as the axis of US relations with Kenya. Valuable ally'Kenya has been a valuable US ally since independence,providing the US with access to its military facilities and political support to the UN. Washington once considered Kenya a model developing country with shared democratic values in a continent where civil wars raged and military and authoritarian governments reigned,' it says.In what amounts to self-recrimination,the report describes the role of the US in the current political mess in Kenya.'The initial US government reaction to the December elections was considered by some international observers as contradictory and seen by some Kenyans as being one-sided in favour of President Kibaki. On December 30,2007,the US government reportedly congratulated President Kibaki. Senior Bush administration officials visited Kenya in an effort to resolve the crisis and provided support to Kofi Annan’s mediation efforts.'It is on record that US-based International Republican Institute (IRI) was prevailed upon by Washington not to release exit poll results,which showed Raila led Kibaki by 65 per cent. The Nation,an authoritative US newspaper in a story headlined Meddling in Kenya’s Elections accused the US embassy in Nairobi and IRI,a Congressionally-mandated organisation funded mainly by Usaid,the State Department and the National Endowment for Democracy,of abetting the crisis and electoral irregularities.Quoting the IRI official,Mr Ken Flottman,the paper reported,'At times,according to Flottman,US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger appeared to him to be actively trying to help Kibaki’s chances. In one case,he says,when a horse-race poll done by the country’s top commercial pollster showed Odinga pulling ahead,Ranneberger ‘was keen to release our poll,which showed Kibaki was more popular’.'This is captured in the CRS findings thus: 'Several months before the December elections,a number of polls indicted that the incumbent president trailed behind opposition candidate Raila Odinga. Many observers,including key President Mwai Kibaki advisors,acknowledged that President Kibaki and his party would lose in December.'The research found that the poll outcome was premeditated and therefore violence was inevitable. 'According to current and former Kenyan government officials,even before the Electoral Commission announced the results,the spouses of senior government officials were preparing for the swearing-in ceremony…The swearing in was said to be so rushed the organisers forgot to include the national anthem in the programme.'The US’s role and apparent reluctance of the Coalition Government to gel and move the reforms agenda forward,it emerged during Carson’s meetings,are a major headache to the new administration in Washington.'If Kenya does not solve its own corruption problem,then Kenya will never grow. It will never be able to provide for its own. And so there’s nothing wrong with the developed nations insisting that we will increase our commitments,that we will design our aid programmes more effectively,that we will open up our markets to trade from poor countries,but that we will also insist that there is good governance and rule of law,and other critical factors in order to make these countries work,' Obama’s letter to the two principals said.The letter is a condensed version of CRS report,which is a series of events preceding the 2007 polls and its aftermath.'Kenyan civil society and human rights advocates argue that it is a mistake to simply describe the current violence as a tribal conflict,since the trigger and the reason behind the violence for many Kenyans is the rigged elections and what they fear is a return to dictatorship. 'Opposition leaders and their supporters strongly believe that the election was stolen from them,and they consider reversing the current trend in Kenya as necessary in order to ensure that the gains made in democracy over the past decade would not be lost,' it says.Message to principalsDuring their two-day visit,Carson and Ms Michelle D Gavin,a special assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the White House,demanded from the Prime Minister and President a timetable for implementation of Agenda Four.In a final communiquÈ released after meeting with the two principals,Carson told Raila: 'This cannot be the democracy you fought for when people are being killed by the State. It cannot be what you went to detention for. All the things you fought for are being thrown into jeopardy by State operatives who order execution of citizens.'And to Kibaki,Gavin relayed this message: 'We shall do whatever we can to help Kenya. But President Obama asked me to relay his message to the Government that he is keen to see reforms in Kenya and that Washington will not do business as usual with Kenya.'