NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept, 5 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson Wafula Chebukati has expressed his relief following the verdict of the Supreme Court of Kenya that upheld the victory of United Democratic Alliance (UDA) presidential candidate William Ruto as president-Elect.
“The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is finally vindicated. We look forward to the full judgment of the Supreme Court as well as feedback from our stakeholders during the post-election evaluation exercise which will inform areas of improvement,”
Chebukati On Monday evening said that while executing his roles, he has always followed the law in ensuring the best electoral practices are employed in the country during an election period.
“The commission reiterates that Election is a process and not an event. This process started immediately after the 2017 General Election and the commission tested its systems and processes in over 40 by-elections in the last five years,” he said.
“Therefore the Supreme Court judgment today is a testimony that the commission conducted a free, fair, transparent, and credible general election that met the democratic aspirations of the people of Kenya,”
The poll body chairperson meanwhile thanked his legal team for defending the IEBC and ensuring that Kenyan’s sovereign will is protected.
Chebukati said that despite several petitioners calling for the nullification of the presidential election results, the team at IEBC had put in place a robust and transparent election infrastructure that ensured votes cast were counted, electronically transmitted, verified, tallied, announced, and declared in line with Articles 81 and 86 of the constitution.
The August 9, 2022 elections were conducted by about 1,000 permanent employees alongside 400,000 temporary staff nationwide.
Despite this Chebukati decried the untold levels of harassment, intimidation, abduction, and threats issued against its staff members during the election period.
Tragically, Embakasi East Returning Officer Daniel Musyoka was also abducted, tortured and later found dead while Gichugu retiring Officer Geoffrey Gitobu died days after the polls with Chebukati relating this demise to ‘election-related stress’.
“In this General Election, the abuse of IEBC staff reached an unimaginable scale. Apart from the two deaths, the commission and staff suffered other atrocities including assault of the chairman, commissioners Prof Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu, and the Commission Secretary/CEO Marjan Hussein at the National Tallying Center during the delectation of election results,” he said.
A voter education coordinator was arrested by anti Terror police officers atoms and detained for three days while the manager of Election operations and a support staff were also allegedly abducted, tortured, and held incommunicado for nine hours.
At the floor of the national tallying center, three IEBC officers were allegedly nearly arrested while rendering their duties even as a staff of a service provider at the National Election Communication Center was abducted.
officials manning heavy-duty printing and photocopy machines at Bomas were also harassed and physically assaulted.
Similar cases were reported in Kakamega, Narok, Kirinyaga, Nairobi, and Wajir where one person saw his leg being amputated as a result of being shot.
Offices of Key IEBC officials are also said to have been broken into with the interest Chbukati saying being accessing sensitive data.
“To date, no one has been arrested for these crimes committed against members of the commission and its staff. As it stands, no human rights and civil society organization have condemned these heinous acts meted on the commission and its staff,”
Chebukati concluded by saying that working for IEBC should not be a death sentence.
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