Kutuny blames IEBC for annulled presidential poll, says SupemeCourt was only doing its work

Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny Fiday differed with President Uhuru Kenyatta's argument on who should be blamed for the annulment of the August 8 presidential election.

At a press briefing in parliament, Kutuny said the Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission (IEBC) was squarely to blame for the annulled presidential election.

President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have been lampooning the Supreme Court judges for invalidating the presidential elections singling out Chief Justice David Maraga for the criticism.

The president and other Jubilee bigwigs have said they will “fix” the judiciary in the event they won in the re-run. This has been taken to mean that they will introduce legislation to abridge the independence of the institution.

Their argument has been that they were denied victory because four judges cannot overrule the will of the people.

Prior to the annulment of the election, they had been urging NASA leader Raila Odinga to seek legal address if he thought he lost unfairly.

Kutuny said IEBC was cited by the four Supreme Court judges for mishandling the elections, by not conducting the poll in accordance with the constitution and existing electoral laws.

"Following the unexpected ruling of the supreme court, the country has been plunged in a dilemma of sorts. The truth is that the judges relied on evidence which showed that IEBC bungled the elections," explained Kutuny, a former political adviser of President Kenyatta.

The MP however wondered how the National Super Alliance (NASA) seemed to have detailed information on how election malpractices were committed, speculating that the opposition may have had informers inside the agency.

"Nasa appeared to have clearly known how the election anomalies were committed, where and when. This indicates that they had or continue to have moles in the commission who supplied documentary evidence to back the petition," said the MP.

Kutuny claimed that some Presiding and Returning Officers conspired with the opposition coalition, and sabotaged the election process, by sneaking in fake ballot papers to some polling stations in NASA strongholds.

He emphasised that IEBC should take action against its officers who manned stations where anomalies were recorded, adding that the same officials should explain how photocopies of electoral materials were found in ballot boxes.

"The reshuffle of Returning and presiding officers and other senior managers at IEBC in areas where malpractices were witnessed is not enough. They need to be charged in court and none of them should be involved in repeat presidential elections," demanded Kutuny.