Exchanges lift lid on uneasy relations, nasty rifts between Chebukati and Chiloba

IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba and commission's Chair Wafula Chebukati. (File, Standard)

Internal communication accessed by Sunday Standard has finally lifted the lid on the profound mistrust and unfathomable interpersonal insecurity issues that have brought the electoral commission to its knees.

At the centre of the ring and leading a divided commission is an exceedingly cynical chairman Wafula Chebukati paired against a suave control-freak in CEO Ezra Chiloba, leading a defiant secretariat keen on pushing back.

From the memos, there is no let-up among the two men. One is determined to bring the other down at every opportunity while the other is determined to call the bluff of the other. A dark horse in public life and a virgin in electoral management, Chebukati stepped into the treacherous labyrinth of polling administration months into a high-stake General Election, literally shooting in the dark.

His initial foray into secretariat affairs -- vetoing staff changes and movements in April -- turned out disastrous with a long-winded dress-down from the CEO, putting his foot down against commission interference with secretariat matters.

“It will not be advisable to recall a list that is already in public domain,” Chiloba signed off a response to an instruction to call off staff changes. The next tiff came after the plenary’s suspension of ICT Director James Muhati turned into a fire that burnt Chebukati’s fingers and defined the trajectory of his tenure.

Compulsory leave

After drawing the bad card against Muhati and replacing him with Chris Musando on May 26, 2017, Chebukati coiled back to the CEO on May 30, seeking to save a situation brought about by the move: “It appears that the officer was sent on compulsory leave without hand-over of assignments or projects he was undertaking on behalf of the commission. Urgently facilitate hand-over so as not to compromise the operations of the organisation,” he wrote.

Muhati bounced back ahead of the election. Sadly, Musando was murdered in circumstances that have not been ascertained to date. Around the same time, Chebukati kicked out another high ranking officer -- Lawy Aura, the procurement director -- transferring him back to Treasury and issued specifications of who should replace him:

“The replacement must be a trained procurement professional duly licenced to practice by the Kenya Institute of Supplies Management. He or she must be at least at the level of manager in the organisational structure.”

And then there were moments which exposed the chairman’s own cluelessness.

On August 1, 2017, the chairman fired a memo to the CEO seeking an explanation on why an excess of 1.2 million ballot papers were printed in alleged contravention of commission’s decision to print extra one per cent for each polling station.

“You are therefore directed to give a written explanation before close of business today as to why this was not adhered to and who gave the authority to print excess of 1.2 million instead of 196,115 ballot papers,” the memo reads.

True to the order, Chiloba did not wait for the day to end. He hurled back a terse response, saying the explanation sought was “self-evident.”

“And that is, that, the one per cent extra will be printed out and the number rounded off to the nearest 50. The number of ballot papers per booklet has consistently been approved at 50.”

Despite the clash of egos, the elections happened to a disastrous end - cancelation by the Supreme Court. The events at the Supreme Court brought the bare knuckles to the fore. Immediately the top court annulled the election, Chebukati wrote to Chiloba, outlining 12 questions all pointing to a complicit secretariat.

Among the issues he wanted answered included questions on missing security features, scanners and satellite phones which failed to work, a username in his name which made thousands of ICT transactions without his approval, failure of transmission, network mapping that was not done and porous servers used.

In his response, Chiloba alerted his chair to the joint responsibility of the commission and secretariat in conduct of the election and rued him for contradicting the commission’s own position in the court filings. He then proceeded to tear down the memo, calling the bluff of his chair, almost mocking his ignorance on some of the issues and questioning his concentration in briefings among others.

Quite calculative

Throughout the memos, Chebukati is always “directing”, signaling an overbearing working relationship. In his responses, Chiloba is a little courteous but sometimes overly assertive to his senior. Chebukati also comes out as somewhat cunning and quite calculative. On January 22, 2018, the chairman met Chiloba out of the office and they discussed the need to cooperate with the Auditor General’s office.

Shortly thereafter, and in quick succession of events oblivious of the outcomes of the meeting, he suspended him and invited the Auditor General whom from earlier communication between them is already on site.

This shrewdness is also exhibited in Chebukati’s memo to acting CEO Marjan Hussen Marjan on December 20 demanding a performance report on ICT related contracts during the elections.