Venezuelan Jose Camargo gains fame as lawyers put him at centre of poll fraud
Lawyers Zehrabanu Janmohamed (left) and James Orengo at the Supreme Court on September 2, 2022 where the name of Venezuelan Jose Camargo gained fame as lawyers put him at centre of election fraud.
Foreigners have become instant celebrities in Kenya before, but not quite like the way one Jose Camargo landed on everyone’s lips Friday, courtesy of the Supreme Court hearings.
In a span of hours, he became the number one trending topic on Kenyan Twitter, had his name printed on at least one T-shirt, and his face reconstructed virtually and incorporated in memes.
Had it been Jose Mourinho, it would have been understandable because the famed football coach calls himself “The Special One” and his penchant for the spectacular is legendary.
But no, it was Jose Gregorio Camargo Castellano, whom the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) says is a 32-year-old Venezuelan on whose laptop vital information relating to the August 9 elections was found after he was arrested alongside two others in Nairobi in July.
The arrest wasn’t the reason for his instant fame, though. It was because his name was projected to an attentive country and a silent courtroom on an election results form whose details were said to be questionable. Lawyers Paul Mwangi, Julie Soweto and Willis Otieno, who were arguing on behalf of parties seeking the quashing of the election result declared on August 15, mentioned Mr Camargo in court, helping reinforce the celebrity status of the man.
‘Jose Camargo’
As she projected a form from the Gacharaigu Primary School polling station 2 in Kangema in Murang’a County that had been photographed with the name “Jose Camargo” appearing on the top left corner, Ms Soweto told the court that this was evidence of tampering that had been left behind “by God’s grace”.
“We didn’t make this up. We were told we forged these documents. This is how, my lord, the staging was happening. This is how the changes were happening,” submitted Ms Soweto to a courtroom engulfed by deep silence.
“This is the person who decided the president-elect of the country. It is on the IEBC portal; it is live,” she submitted. “We were told the foreigners left before August 8…This person is the one who was interfering with the forms.”
Arrested at the airport
Mr Mwangi submitted: “Jose Camargo is one of the Venezuelans that was arrested at the airport with charges of coming to interfere with the elections.”
Mr Otieno was more dramatic. Building on an earlier testimony by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that all foreigners who were setting up its systems were locked out before the August 9 election, he questioned why the name of Mr Camargo appeared on a form taken on election day.
“My learned friend (IEBC lawyer Mahat) Somane said it’s like a plumber maintaining the system. Let me say this: once a plumber has fixed your bathroom, that plumber has no business being in your bathroom when you are showering. If you find him at that time, you tell him, ‘Get behind me, Satan’ as was said in the book of Mark 8:33 in the Bible when the devil entered Peter and Jesus told him, ‘Get behind me, Satan.’ A plumber who is in your bathroom when you are showering is no longer a plumber. He is a sexual offender and should be reported,” said Mr Otieno, triggering laughter.
IEBC would later argue that Mr Camargo’s name appeared on the register and the printed quick reader (QR) code that were printed by Smartmatic International, the firm that was contracted to supply the technology for the election, to help provide a trail.
