NAIROBI, Kenya May 6 – The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party is on Friday set to petition the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) over the involvement of Cabinet Secretaries in the preparations of the August polls.
In particular, the Deputy President William Ruto-led party wants the Commission to summon ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru over the remarks he made that his Ministry is closely working with Azimio La Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga to deliver credible polls in August.
“We will be doing a formal communication to the Commission chair to first of all protest the purported interference, the undertones the innuendos that have been generated by that video implying that there could be something they are planning behind the scenes,” the party’s Secretary General Veronica Maina said.
Mucheru made the remarks during a meeting of Odinga with Central Kenya leaders on Wednesday in Nyeri County where he also pledged his allegiance and declared state support for the former Prime Minister.
“So some of us are there to ensure we have free fair elections making sure systems and everything are working and obviously we are working closely with Baba to ensure that that is the case and we’ve been looking and seeing the information we are on the right track we are on the right path,” Mucheru said.
Director General of Ruto’s campaign secretariat, Josephat Nanok noted that Mucheru should be questioned warning that such remarks could easily fuel unnecessary tension in the country ahead of the polls.
“We wish to point out that although it is not isolated, Mucheru’s brazen statement highlights an unfortunate trend by cabinet secretaries to pursue impunity, circumvent the rule of law, corrupt public institutions, facilitate the commission of criminal offenses and subvert our democracy,” said
Nanok stated that there might be a plot to circumvent the will of the people in favor of Azimio coalition candidate as the docket of ICT plays an integral role in the polls in the tallying and relaying the results across the 47,000 polling stations.
“We also wonder what legal framework mandates a Presidential candidate to assign, direct, supervise and receive reports on election manipulation from Cabinet Secretaries who are directly involved in elections,” he said.
Mucheru has since defended his remarks noting that “he is alllowed to choose any candidate he wants because it is his democratic right”.
