IEBC chair Chebukati reveals dissenting commissioners wanted to force re-run

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebulati has responded to an allegation that he kept four of his commissioners in the dark regarding the tallying of the presidential election results.

Chebukati released a statement on Wednesday, August 17, saying that his role as National Returning Officer for the Presidential Election is not a shared responsibility and not subject to plenary decisions of the Commission.

He added that all returning officers including him took an individual oath of secrecy before embarking on their duties.

IEBC vice chair Juliana Cherera Pulse Live Kenya

“As the gazetted National Returning Officer and in the spirit of teamwork, the Chairperson involved all Commissioners including Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Justus Nyang'aya and Irene Masit in all activities of verification and tallying.

“Their duties were well defined in writing and allocated at the National Tally Center (NTC). They had access to all results beforehand and interchangeably announced them for six (6) days in the full glare of live television,” read an excerpt of the statement.

Chebukati accused the four commissioners of planning to force an election re-run.

IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati Pulse Live Kenya

“The Chairperson refused to yield to this unconstitutional and illegal demand and proceeded to declare the results of the Presidential Election as received from the polling stations, and contained in Form 34A, in accordance with the law,” he said in the statement.

He said that the alleged 0.01% increase in the presidential election raised by the four commissioners was misleading.

IEBC dissenting commissioners claimed that the figures announced are mathematically wrong.

In a media briefing at Serena Hotel, the commission’s vice chair Juliana Cherera dismissed the figures announced by Chebukati, saying they lacked critical components.

“The total exceeded the 100% mark, the 0.01% translates to 142,000 votes which made a significant difference in the final presidential results,” she said.

However, an independent check by the news desk showed that 0.01% of 14 million is about 1,400 and not 142,000 votes as alleged.

Cherera stated that the dissenting commissioners concluded that the process that went into the generation of Form 34C was not clear.

She said that the commissioners were not given updates on the cumulative tally of the presidential results even as late as two days prior to the announcement.

The commissioners said that they only saw the final results hours before Chebukati announced them, arguing that the IEBC Chair should have brought the matter for discussion.

Cherera also said that the results announced did not indicate the total number of registered voters, cast or rejected votes and lacked the total number of valid votes cast to support the percentages scored by the four candidates.