IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati (received) received the petition for verification on October 31 after the Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Kennedy Kihara, presented it/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 6 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Wednesday announced it had completed the verification of signatures submitted in support for a petition seeking the dissolution of Taita Taveta County government.
The electoral agency said 21,861 of the 39,300 signatures submitted in support of the petition presented to the Office of the President were matched with registered voters in the county.
Under Article 123 of the County Government Act, a petition seeking the dissolution of a county government requires the backing of at least 10 per cent of registered voters in the said county.
There were 155,716 registered voters in Taita Taveta as at March 2017.
IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati received the petition for verification on October 31 after the Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Kennedy Kihara, presented it.
“IEBC is the only body that has the custody of the voters’ register and therefore, the office of the president has approached us to verify whether they are genuine voters,” Chebukati said while receiving the petition.
Governor Granton Samboja is defending his seat in court after Members of the County Assembly impeached him.
The case will be determined on November 28 but a Senate committee that was set up to investigate circumstances under which he was impeached has already cleared him of all the charges made against him by MCAs.
The 11-member team chaired by Embu Senator Njeru Ndwiga on October 24 dismissed the charges leveled against the governor saying that it does not meet the constitutional threshold for impeachment.
Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka announced that the committee had absolved him of all the six charges, allowing him to continue serving as Governor of Taita Taveta County and ruled out any further debate or vote on the matter.
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