Resigned IEBC Commissioner Akombe received threats

IEBC Commissioner Roselyn Akombe (PHOTO: FILE)

 

NAIROBI, KENYA: Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission senior official Roselyne Akombe might not return back to Kenya after her Wednesday resignation.
In an audio interview with British Broadcasting Corporation, the commissioner said she fears for her life and regretted that the lucrative job she landed at the commission early this year could end up with death threats.
During the interview Akombe said, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati is a very able leader but needed to be firm to make meaningful concessions that would allow Nasa and Jubilee to have a levelled playground before the repeat poll.
"Chairman Chebukati is a very well-meaning person, he has the temperament to be able to be a leader but he is a leader who is under siege in the commission," she said adding that Chebukati lacks support base in the commission. "If he could have been much firmer we could have gone far as a commission but there is some of his characters helpful in a situation like we have now. At times you need firmness to move on," she added.
She said IEBC is ready to conduct an election but not a credible one pointing out that mistakes repeated in the August 8 election likely to be made.
By the time of going to press, IEBC was yet to release official statement on Akombe's resignation
Supreme Court on September 1 ordered for repeat presidential elections after it nullified the Aug. 8 re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta, following a petition by opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Raila withdrew from the poll last week, saying the election board had not carried out reforms demanded by the opposition, thrusting the country, a key Western ally and also the richest economy in the region, into deeper political uncertainty.?