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2017 KENYA ELECTIONS

Jubilee MPs open to conditional change of election date

Ichungwa flanked by other Jubilee Members of Parliament/HILARY MWENDA

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 19 – A section of Jubilee Party (JP) on Tuesday said they are amenable to a change of the election date so long as it does not affect the national examination dates.

This comes as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has convened a meeting between the Jubilee and National Super Alliance (NASA) teams Wednesday to brief them on the preparedness for the fresh presidential election even as the October 17 date remains in doubt.

The MPs led by National Assembly Deputy Majority Whip Cecily Mbarire (nominated) said they will attend the meeting which their colleagues in NASA have ruled out until its demands are met.

“Jubilee (Party) will be at IEBC discussing matters we find very critical for this election to go on; we want to say any election date must not affect the exam time-table for our children. Our children have been preparing for the last one year; they are ready to do their exams… We cannot have elections happening at the same time as exams,” she said.

Among the list of demands by NASA is the blacklisting of the French biometric systems supplier OT-Morpho which it claims bribed its way to get the lucrative results transmission tender and should be held accountable for the bungled August 8 presidential election.

 

OT-Morpho provided 45,000 tablets for identifying voters using biometric technology and the system used to transmit results counted at polling stations as well as a scan of the paper sheet from each station.

Delays in transmission of the tally sheets was an irregularity NASA raised in its petition to the Supreme Court.

National Assembly Majority Whip Benjamin Washiali (Mumias East) and Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwah accused opposition leader Raila Odinga, and his National Super Alliance (NASA) party of fearing fresh presidential elections.

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They said the ruling party was ready for the elections in 60 days as ordered by the Supreme Court and promised to give Odinga a trouncing.

At the same time, Jubilee Party Women MPs have called on Chief Justice David Maraga to probe allegations that two Supreme Court judges breached the Judicial Service Commission’s core values of conduct during the NASA petition proceedings to nullify the August 8 presidential election.

The legislators led by Nyandarua County Representative Wanjiku Muhoho said Maraga as the President of the Supreme Court of Kenya and Chairperson of the JSC should take the matter seriously.

“We ask you to look into your own kitchen, look into something that is burning within your institution. We hope you will smell it sooner than later and act before it suffocates the entire nation,” she said in a letter to the CJ.

This comes a day after a petition was filed at the Commission seeking the investigation and removal from office of Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu and Justice Isaac Lenaola over allegations they were in contact with members of the NASA Presidential candidate Raila Odinga during the period the Court was hearing the Presidential petition challenging Uhuru Kenyatta’s August 8 victory.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court nullified the results of the August 8 presidential election citing irregularities and ordered a new poll within 60 days after Odinga, who disputed the results, brought the matter to court.

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