National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale challenged the electoral body to disclose details of foreigners seconded to the commission for clarity on the roles they will play in next year’s polls/MUTHONI NJUKI
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 18 – The Jubilee Coalition has petitioned the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of National Assembly demanding the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to furnish Parliament with comprehensive details on donor funding by Tuesday next week.
Speaking during a press conference on Sunday at the Tuko Pamoja Towers in Pangani, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale challenged the electoral body to disclose details of foreigners seconded to the commission for clarity on the roles they will play in next year’s polls.
“IEBC must provide to Kenyans, all the resources they have received from the donor communities and foreign governments, and the name and the particulars of people seconded to the commission by these organizations,” Duale said flanked by Jubilee legislators.
According to Duale, the ruling coalition had written to the IEBC Chief Executive Ezra Chiloba demanding for the commission to come clean on the involvement of a foreigner by the name Michael Yard in the commission’s work, who Duale said is part of a plot by CORD to rig the next election in favour of Raila Odinga.
“I attended a meeting by the IEBC on technology and Michael Yard was present in that meeting,” he said. “Now we can confirm that he (Yard) purports to be a Canadian but he is an American and he is part of the grand scheme to rig the election in favour of Raila Odinga because he (Raila) believes he cannot get the numbers and he wants to use foreign mercenaries so that he can become a puppet president.”
The Majority Leader ruled out assertions that the ruling party wanted to influence the 2017 polls through the Elections Law Amendment Bill, saying an amendment is only meant to provide an alternative should the biometric system fail in some parts of the country.
According to Duale, the amendment to the law was proposed by the IEBC after a session with the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of National Assembly to iron out issues it considers problematic in the new law, including sections of the Election Campaign Financing (Amendment) Act which provide that all candidates submit their campaign financing account with the commission.
“The question that came up was that there were no candidates yet, there were only aspirants,” he said adding that the only amendment by Jubilee was purely on the qualifications of those intending to run for elective seats.
Among issues the IEBC seeks to address through proposed amendments is, provision of an alternative should the biometric system provided for by the law fails, in order to avert a crisis due to voter being turned away as a result of technological hitches.
“The commission shall put in place an alternative and complimentary mechanism for identification and transmission of results that is simple accurate, verifiable, secure, accountable and transparent,” read part of the amendment by the electoral commission to be tabled on the floor of the house on Tuesday.
Duale dismissed claims that the alternative system would be used for vote rigging, saying it was only meant to be used where technology initially deployed failed.
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