Kitui East MP Nimrod Mbai has made startling revelations about the tense moments surrounding the announcement of Kenya’s disputed 2007 presidential election results, claiming he had been heavily armed and placed on standby to whisk away the then electoral commission chairman immediately after the declaration.
Speaking in an investigative feature by NTV Kenya titled #StolenBallot, Mbai narrated how he was secretly assigned the mission during the dramatic final hours of vote tallying at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.
At the time, Mbai was serving as a police sergeant attached to then government spokesman Alfred Mutua.
According to Mbai, although Sundays were normally his off days, he received unusual instructions to remain on standby on the day the results were expected to be announced.
He said he was also directed to ensure that no other members of his team were aware of the assignment.
“I have never been armed the way I was armed that day,” Mbai said during the investigation.
Secret Mission at KICC
Mbai revealed that his assignment was to extract Samuel Kivuitu, the then chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, immediately after he announced the presidential results.
According to Mbai, the plan even involved agreeing on a coded word with Kivuitu that would signal when it was time for him to move in and whisk the electoral boss away from the tallying centre.
The NTV investigation reports that the operation was part of what it describes as a well-crafted state machinery plan executed with military precision.
The report further claims that the operation was allegedly supervised by then Lieutenant-General Julius Karangi.
Chaos During Results Announcement
The investigative piece also revisits the confusion that gripped the tallying centre at KICC as the country anxiously awaited the final results.
According to the report, several returning officers had not physically reported to the command centre and could not be reached by phone at a critical moment during the tallying process.
The situation escalated when results from several strongholds of then President Mwai Kibaki began arriving at the tallying centre.
NTV reports that the arrival of those results marked the beginning of chaos inside the hall as disputes and accusations erupted among party agents and observers.
Eventually, Samuel Kivuitu declared Kibaki the winner of the presidential race against opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Kenya’s Darkest Political Moment
The controversial announcement triggered the 2007–2008 Kenyan post-election violence, one of the darkest chapters in Kenya’s political history. The violence left more than 1,000 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands across the country before mediation led by former Kofi Annan under the African Union resulted in a power-sharing government between Kibaki and Odinga in 2008.
Through the #StolenBallot investigation, NTV Kenya now seeks to shed light on the hidden security operations and tense events that unfolded at KICC during the crucial hours that shaped the outcome of the 2007 election.
