Chebukati before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of the National Assembly/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 4 — The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has denied stationing more voter registration kits in opposition strongholds.
The Commission’s Communications Manager Andrew Limo says the formulae used in their distributing them was made public and has accused the Jubilee Secretariat of dishonesty with the claims.
“When we started the voter registration campaign, we widely shared the formula of distribution of BVR (Biometric Voter Registration) kits. No one raised concerns.”
He says it was unfortunate for the Head of the Secretariat Raphael Tuju to ethnically profile the newly sworn-in Commission Chairman and its CEO in the process.
“Instead of addressing the issues, the statement went further to profile officials of the IEBC in a nuanced ethnic sense and making an attempt to associate them with political groupings. We take great exception with any form of profiling that undermines the integrity of the Commission, and more importantly, the values of our Constitution.”
The Commission has in response assured Kenyans that they strive to deliver credible elections and has asked the political class to allow them do their job.
JP Head of Secretariat Raphael Tuju claimed the opposition areas such Siaya, Bungoma and Khwisero have been assigned more kits as compared to Jubilee leaning areas such as Tharaka-Nthi and Nyeri.
“IEBC has a credibility gap to fill and that the fact that both (Ezra) Chiloba and (Wafula) Chebukati come from the same counties and apprehension has been raised by people from our jubilee strong holds.”
He was addressing a news conference to react to claims by opposition super outfit, NASA that the regions have less kits.
“NASA/CORD areas have received a larger number of BVR machines, in our own computation they have 255 extra machines. We therefore request the Chebukati/Chiloba led IEBC to give explain the rationale that was used to arrive at the formula.”
Tuju urged the newly appointed Chairperson and his commissioners to remain independent.
“We cannot be in the business of defending IEBC from NASA when credibility of their impartiality is being undermined they should stand up and defend themselves.”
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