Commissioner Irene Masit throws Chebukati under the bus over 3 Venezuelans saga

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s commissioner Irene Masit has put IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati on the spot over his suspicious dealings with three Venezuelan nationals at the center of poll rigging claims and who were arrested with election materials at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

According to Masit, the commission was not aware that the three Venezuealans were coming into the country and was not expecting any election materials at the time and that only Chebukati knew of their trip and the materials they were bringing into the country.

The commissioners only came to realize of them in the media after the trio was arrested at JKIA with election materials as Chebukati did not make it known to them – at the plenary or through any form of communication – that the foreigners would be jetting in with election material.

IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati Pulse Live Kenya

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"It is not by surprise that in the month of July, 2022 when the nation was struck by the news of Venezuela nations Salvador Javier Sosa Suarez, Joel Gustavo Rodriguez Garcia and Jose Grecorio Castellanos, a matter that is now in the public domain, arrested having arrived in the country with election materials none of the commissioners was aware of their coming nor possession of election materials but the chairman, Wafula Chebukati,” reads her affidavit in part.

"The chairperson indeed went out public to defend the foreign nationals when the commission did not even expect election materials at the time thereby depicting the true person of the chairperson of the IEBC singly usurping the powers of the Commission albeit illegally and unconstitutionally.”

IEBC commissioners hold meeting for the first time since IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati announced Presidential results from the General Elections of Kenya Pulse Live Kenya

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“I was not aware of the coming of the foreign nationals with election materials and the same had not been brought to the attention of the commissioners either at the plenary or through any other form of communication and it was surprising as it was suspicious that the chairperson was the only person aware of their arrival,” Masit noted.

Responding to claims made by Chebukati to the effect that she, alongside three commissioners (Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, and Justus Nyang’aya) attempted to force a presidential election run-off, the commissioner dismissed the claims, noting that they were desperate attempts by the IEBC chairman to put their credibility into question.