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ODM leader Raila Odinga addresses leaders from northern Kenya who defected to his party on November 30, 2021.

COUNTDOWN TO 2022

Raila’s ODM faults IEBC for withdrawing from election preparedness team

NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 30-Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has criticized the move by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to withdraw from the Multi-agency team on election preparedness ahead of next year’s General Election.

The party’s Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna faulted the poll body saying the conduct of the much-anticipated poll must be done in coordination with other government agencies to ensure efficiency.

“For us to have a successful election we can’t possibly have IEBC work in isolation. Election preparedness requires all stakeholders to work in coordination. When we have put in place government agencies to work in collaboration, it’s not a good scenario to see the IEBC run away and distance themselves,” Sifuna said a day after IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati wrote to the Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho announcing the commission’s withdrawal from the team that is chaired by Chief Justice Martha Koome.

In his letter, Chebukati said involvement in the team will take away its independence, a move supported by Deputy President William Ruto and his allies who had raised concerns about the Judiciary’s conduct.

CJ Koome has, however, defended her involvement in the poll preparedness saying she does not sit in the team charged with the core mandate of preparing the election.

On Monday, Sifuna argued that IEBC is an independent body and therefore, it should not be moved by complaints made by political parties out to interfere with its mandate, in an apparent reference to Ruto and his United Democratic Alliance (UDA).

“You know UDA has written one letter and Chebukati has suddenly started feeling jitters. Now Chebukati is saying they are an independent body, yet they are being threatened by a party that started the other day and has only one legislator. Is that real independence?” he posed.

In a letter dated November 22, Chebukati said the commission had made the decision to withdraw from the Multi-Sectoral Consultative Forum on Election Preparedness and Technical Working Committee because it risks interfering with its independence.

Multi-Sectoral Consultative Forum on Election Preparedness and Technical Working Committee which comprises all ministries, agencies, and departments responsible for the election cycle brings together stakeholders who have been mandated to prepare for the 2022 elections.

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ODM Director of Elections Junet Mohammed who is also the MP for Suna East emphasized that the party is calling for a free, fair, and credible elections regardless of whether IEBC is a member of the Multi-Sectoral Consultative Forum on Election Preparedness and Technical Working Committee.

“We want you (IEBC) to conduct a credible election and we don’t want to know how the Multi-Sectoral agency is conducting their work, that is not the business of ODM. Our party is not in government and is not interested in the relationship between IEBC and the government,” said Junet.

The Suna East MP accused the Chebukati-led team of interfering with the credibility of the 2017 polls and vowed that they will not accept the outcone of what he described as a “shambolic election.”

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