John Adoyi, PBA Journalism MenteeIn the latest series of drama taking place after the recently concluded Kenya presidential election, four officials of the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission who earlier rejected the results, have accused the chairman of running a one-show during the exercise.
Result of the August 9 election announced on Monday, 15 has been
trailed with disputes by the four top electoral officials, and the closest rival contender, Raila Odinga who rejected the result claiming that it was not transparent.
According to the four officials which include vice chair Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Justus Nyang’aya and Irene Masit, the Chairman of the electoral body Wafula Chebukati was running a one-man show of the electoral body by not granting them permission to verify results of elections which is within their constitutional rights as electoral officials.
“At no time did the commission seek to moderate election results but rather requested that a proper verification as envisaged in the Constitution is carried out,” they said.
“His actions and conduct were unorthodox and turned the commission into a one-man-show circus in an attempt to subvert the Constitution, electoral laws and the will of the people,” they further alleged.
Quoting Article 88 (4) of the Kenyan constitution which grant them the rights to verify all results before declaration, the officials said “We wish to categorically state that from his statement, the chairman Mr. Chebukati appears to have misconstrued his role and that of the Commissioners and further misunderstood the Constitutional and legal mandate to verify results by the Commission to mean what he vaguely characterised as ‘moderation’ of those results.”
“Regrettably, Mr. Chebukati clothed himself with autocratic powers and declined to avail the results for verification as duly required by law before the said results are announced.”
Wafula Chebukati had earlier accused the four officials of trying to subvert the will of the people by trying to force a re-run of the presidential election between president-elect, William Ruto and his closest rival Raila Odinga.
This came in response to the four officials distancing themselves from the declared presidential election result, saying the process at which the results were arrived lacks transparency and the result mathematically incorrect.
But the chairman in the detailed statement issued on Wednesday, also highlighted measures taken by the commission in line with provisions of the law to ensure transparency in the whole process.
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