IEBC rift as Chebukati confronts Cherera and the other three commissioners
IEBC rift as Chebukati confronts Cherera and the other three commissioners who dissented on the August presidential results.
Wafula Chebukati and his vice chair Juliana Cherera, are at odds after the former called out the latter at a post-election evaluation meeting they both attended in Mombasa.
On September 15, Chebukati accused Cherera and three other commissioners of ordering the arbitrary detention of IEBC employees and defaming the Commission.
He lamented how commissioners Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu, and CEO Marjan Marjan had been attacked and hurt due to the commotion at Bomas.
“The most unfortunate incident was the false accusation by commissioners and fellow staff – under oath – that exposed innocent hardworking staff to arbitrary arrests and abductions, intimidation and harassment by security agencies and political goons, and other forms of obstructing election officials from conducting their duties.
“These shameless attacks amounting to election offences were perpetrated by, among others, persons regarded as national leaders in full view of the whole nation and the world at large,” Chebukati hit out at Cherera who was present at the meeting.
Chebukati took offense with his vice chair Juliana Cherera and the other three commissioners on the claim that they were assigned minor roles during the August general elections.
He added that the Commission constituted committees with each commissioner serving as the chair after the nomination of commissioners Juliana Cherera, Irene Masit, Francis Wanderi, and Justus Nyang’aya—the four who dissented.
According to him, this was done to improve how the commission formulates its policies and strategies and performs its supervision duties.
Chebukati clarified that during the election period, the commission’s main responsibility was to make sure that the results of the election were confirmed, tallied, and announced.
According to the CEO, all commission members had unrestricted access to the floor of the tallying center where they could observe and oversee the process of verifying election results.
Cherera and every other staff were thus assigned duties to manage critical components of the election.
“It is therefore insincere for any member of the commission and senior staff to allege that they were barred from providing assistance to the election management process. It is even tragic that some members of the commission would petition the Supreme Court of Kenya to nullify results that we collectively worked under difficult circumstances to deliver for the people of Kenya.
“The unfounded allegations that the election results management process was opaque is totally oblivious to the fact that returning officers had to spend a minimum of three days at the national tallying as their return of results were verified in the presence of agents, the media, and observers before the announcement,” Chebukati slammed his juniors.
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