Samuel Kivuitu

Samuel Kivuitu (1939 – 25 February 2013) was head of the now defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya. He was reappointed to his post by the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki ahead of the 2007 general election, having already been in charge during Kenya's general elections in 1997, 2002 as well as a constitutional referendum in 2005. Samuel Kivuitu was appointed to the post By Daniel Arap Moi replacing Zacchaeus Chesoni, who was the head of the Electoral commission during Kenya's 1992 general election. He was among the people blamed for the elections that lacked transparency in Kenya in the year 2007 which eventually led to post-election violence. He later tried to exonerate himself, arguing that he was, more or less, a puppet of some other forces but those on the losing side could not hear any of it. Some people argue that if that was the case, Kivuitu should have stood up, principled, and resigned instead of presiding over what he knew was a sham election; that if people like him could not stand up firm at a moment of historical significance, then who would protect the common man, and tell him/her what really happened.

Kivuitu was educated in Uganda (1959–61) and Tanzania (1961–65). He was elected MP for Parklands in 1969-74 and 1983-88. He died on 25 February 2013 at the MP Shah hospital after suffering from throat cancer for years, though his death did not receive media attention as promptly as it would have been expected of a person of his status in the history of the country.