Wafula Chebukati: IEBC mounted a clean election, resisted bids to alter results

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati during IEBC National Election 2022 Conference at KICC, Nairobi on July 11, 2022. [Boniface Okendo, Standard] Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati has defended the declaration of William Ruto as the president-elect, saying the elections were clean, free, fair and transparent. Chebukati, who was responding to a petition filed by Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua seeking to overturn the election outcome, said that Dr Ruto fairly won the election. "The presidential election was conducted in accordance with the Constitution, the elections laws and all the relevant statutes. Allegations that I bungled the election in favour of Dr Ruto are misplaced and without any factual basis," he said. Chebukati maintained that he was within the law to declare Dr Ruto as president-elect after satisfying himself that he met the constitutional threshold of 50 per cent plus one vote, and that he only declared the results in strict compliance with the law. He instead accused four commissioners who disowned the results as being insincere by lying to the public that he had cooked results in collusion with Dr Ruto's agents. At the same time, the chairman revealed the goings-on at Bomas on the day the elections were announced, and two instances when the commission received delegations that wanted the election called in favour of Raila or, in the alternative, a run-off. He said some politicians and some members of the National Security Advisory Committee had met him in the company of all commissioners. He said IEBC vice-chairperson Juliana Cherera, commissioners Justus Nyang'aya, Francis Wanderi and Irene Masit had agreed with the request to alter results, but that he and commissioners Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu had insisted that they would not subvert the will of the people. He said when he declined their demand, the four commissioners walked out. "I got the support of commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye and declined to alter the results. It is the decision to decline their unlawful attempts to alter the results that caused disagreements between the commissioners," claimed Chebukati. The chairman narrated the events of the day that saw the commission fail to publicly declare the results from 27 constituencies. "Due to the limited timeline and violence experienced at the national tallying centre, I proceeded to declare the final result of the presidential election without the announcement of results of the remaining 27 constituencies," said Chebukati. Chebukati, however, stated that results from the 27 constituencies were ready and were to be publicly announced by Guliye before violence broke out at the main dais at the Bomas of Kenya auditorium. He defended the decision not to announce results from the 27 constituencies, saying that they had already been tallied and captured in the final Form 34C. Raila and Karua, in their petition, have raised the failure of Chebukati to announce results from the constituencies as one ground of challenging Ruto's win, arguing that it affected the validity of the final results. The constituencies included Bomachoge, Borabu, Bura, Eldas, Fafi, Kacheliba, Kajiado East, Kanduyi, Kapenguria, Kilifi North, Kitutu Chache, Kuria East, Mandera West, Matuga, Mbeere North, Mvita, Narok North and Narok South. Others were Narok West, Ndaragua, Ndhiwa, Nyakach, Rangwe, Suba North, Tigania East, Wajir North and West Mugirango. He added that he declared the results after verification witnessed by all agents, and that all the systems they put up at the national tallying centre were transparent and accountable. According to Chebukati, there were no variance of Forms 34A and 34B as alleged, and that all agents were allowed to carry copies and point out any discrepancies. On claims that he had violated the Constitution and should be declared unfit to hold public office, Chebukati argued that he performed his duties in accordance with the law and that he did not breach any law at any given time. "It is not true that the commission and I set out to subvert the will of the people. On the contrary, I managed and conducted the presidential election in accordance with the law despite the difficulty I faced throughout the verification, tallying and declaration of the results," said Chebukati. Chebukati denied allegations that the commission is divided and did not carry out verification and tallying of votes as a unit, stating that they worked as a team and only disintegrated when some commissioners wanted to force him to commit an electoral offence. On the disputed actual voter turnout, Chebukati stated 14,239,862 voters were captured in the KIEMS kits and that based on the tally, the winning candidate surpassed the 50 per cent plus one vote. The IEBC chairman further defended the process of voter tallying, arguing the process was transparent and verifiable and that at no time did he refuse to include results from some constituencies. "The transparency with which the process of tallying and declaration of results were undertaken is also captured in the reports of independent election observers. Their claims that we did not tally and verify the count is vague and lack substance," said Chebukati. The commission's chairman also denied claims that he usurped the powers of other commissioners by singlehandedly tallying and declaring the results, stating he is the one constitutionally mandated to declare the presidential results. In any event, Chebukati stated that the verification process was so elaborate and that the transmission of results from the polling stations, to constituency and national tallying centres acted against any fraud by eliminating any human intermeddling. On claims that he announced the results without factoring results from some areas, Chebukati stated that he only left out six polling stations from the final count which were insignificant and could not affect the final tally from 46,223 other polling stations. "In the event that there were any errors in the forms, the same would have been recorded and indicated on the error forms. But we had no such errors which were recorded by any of our staff doing the verification," he said. Chebukati also defended himself against allegation that he committed electoral and criminal offences by by sabotaging the election. He also denied postponing governor election in Mombasa and Kakamega counties in order to suppress presidential voter turnout, stating the mix-up of ballot boxes was not deliberate.

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