IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati/CFM
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 7 – IEBC Commissioners were meeting Thursday amid controversy dogging preparations for the fresh presidential election due on October 17, with reports indicating that they are themselves divided over the team named by Chairperson Wafula Chebukati to manage the fresh poll.
Officials at the Commission say the meeting will be followed by meetings with representatives of the Jubilee Party and National Super Alliance who have all opposed some of the preparations so far announced – including the election date and officials named to manage the new poll.
It is understood that NASA has insisted on having the Commissioners meet them at their secretariat offices, but the commissioners are firm they can only meet the coalition’s representatives at IEBC headquarters citing the autonomy of the Commission.
It still remains unclear if the Commission will jointly meet both parties, having invited Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju for a consultative forum in a letter dated September 6. NASA failed to honour a similar invitation on Wednesday.
While responding to Tuju’s letter protesting the composition of a six-member team to oversee the election, Chebukati fiercely defended the decision by IEBC saying as an independent Commission, they cannot be guided on what to do.
Tuju had also written to Chebukati on Wednesday questioning the credibility of his six-member election project team.
The ruling party’s Secretary General specifically singled out the team leader – Commission’s Deputy CEO in charge of Support Services, Marjan Hussein Marjan – as partisan.
Other named by Tuju include Salome Oyugi (Manager – Political Parties and Campaign Financing), Decimah Mmayi (Director Research and Development) and Joyce Ekuam (Voter Education Manager).
While responding to a letter by the chief of NASA campaign secretariat Musalia Mudavadi on Wednesday, Chebukati promised to review poll technology which he specifically promised to monitor during the forthcoming election.
“I intend to carry out a full audit of the servers guided by the previous orders of the Supreme Court,” he said.
He however cautioned that given the limited time the commission has to hold the fresh poll, training of new officers may not be possible.
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