The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) vice chairperson Juliana Cherera has shared damaging evidence on the allegations she raised against her boss Wafula Chebukati.
After terming him a dictator who wanted to subvert the will of the people, Cherera in her affidavit signed at the Supreme Court argued that Chebukati orchestrated his plan long before the election day, August 9.
She argued that since joining the Commission, she and the three other dissenting commissioners, Justus Nyang’aya, Irene Masit and Francis Wanderi experienced a pattern of incessant and continuous lack of transparency by Wafula Chebukati.
Among the issues she raised was that he unilaterally undertook the transfer of returning officers without consulting fellow Commissioners. He also allegedly failed to convene meetings to appraise the Commissioners on the implementation of the audit of the register of voters.
Cherera also complained that the commissioners only learnt that Lykos Hellas SA, the printing firm contractor in Greece, was directed to print two sets of booklets Forms 34A when they toured their plant.
“I discovered that when I visited the firm together with the representatives of the presidential candidates. All along, the Commission had always been aware that only one Form 34A was in be used for recording the presidential results at the polling centres.
However, on July 21 2022 when commissioner Wanderi and I visited Lykos Hellas to inspect the printing of Presidential Ballot Papers, we were informed that orders had been given for the printing of two sets of Forms 34A, Form 1 of 2 and Form 2 of 2,” she lamented.
The matter, she insisted, was brought into the limelight and addressed after presidential agents raised similar grievances.
Change of Roles
At the Bomas of Kenya, Cherera claimed that Chebukati re-designated the commissioners’ primary roles and assigned them functions not relevant to the tallying and verification process.
“Masit, who chairs the legal committee, was placed in charge of hospitality which covered logistics and security while Nyangaya, who chairs the ICT committee, was assigned protocol (receiving VIPs) yet technology was central to the election process,” Cherera complained.
Verification of Presidential Results
Cherera added that Chebukati requested the Commissioners to join him in the boardroom and proceeded to issue the Commissioners with a document containing what he termed a summary of the presidential election results.
Chebukati, however, alleged he had tallied and verified from the backend of the server (alone) and did not indicate how the errors and concerns raised by the presidential agents were dealt with.
“We once again sought to tally and verify the results but the chairperson indicated that he would announce the results,” Cherera added.
More to follow…
