Four Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioners, led by vice chairperson Juliana Cherera, have denied allegations that they attempted to force a run-off election in the recently concluded August 9 polls.
The Cherera-led team made four allegations against IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati in a statement to the newsrooms on Friday, August 19.
Among them were allegations that he misunderstood their statement, refused to verify the results, acted unconstitutionally, and sought to subvert the will of the people.
Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Justus Nyangaya, and Irene Masit maintained that Chebukati’s numbers were incorrect and that he should have verified them before declaring William Ruto as President-elect.
“We wish to state categorically that, based on his statement, the chairman, Mr Chebukati, appears to have misconstrued his and the commissioners’ roles, and further misunderstood his Constitutional and legal mandate to verify results by the Commission to mean what he vaguely characterized as’moderation’ of those results,” Cherera said.
The four accused Chebukati of ignoring their roles and the law by declaring William Ruto the President-elect, further undermining the people’s will.
“The chairman proceeded to unilaterally declare the results without any plenary verification whatsoever by all the commissioners and/or their participation as mandated by the Constitution and electoral laws,” according to the statement. “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.”
Unlike Chebulati, the four stated that they were in order to request plenary verification of results before the chairman announced the winner of the polls.
Earlier this week, Chebukati claimed that the four forced him to declare a re-run in violation of their oath of office.
He insisted that all the commissioners were involved in the verification process at the Bomas of Kenya and did not understand the demands the commissioners made before the President-elect was announced.
