Raila man paid for 'IEBC four' presser, hotel rooms

 Former IEBC Commissioners Juliana Cherera, Justus Nyang'aya and Francis Wanderi and commissioner Irene Masit. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

The same person who paid for the accommodation of electoral commissioners at a Kilimani hotel in August paid for their press conference at a city hotel earlier in the day, the tribunal investigating the four heard.

Serena Hotel management has written to Justice Aggrey Muchelule Tribunal revealing that Edwin Ogwe paid for the venue of the August 15 press conference where four IEBC commissioners dismissed as "opaque" the presidential election results which were about to be announced by their chairman at Bomas national tallying centre.

The four commissioners are Irene Masit, former vice chair Juliana Cherera, Justus Nyang'aya and Francis Wanderi. The latter three have since resigned from the Commission but Masit is fighting to clear her name over allegations of gross misconduct relating to the events of August 15.

Ogwe paid Sh30,000 for the press conference venue, and a further Sh30,000 for another presser held at the same venue the following day.

During the campaign period in May, Ogwe hosted an Azimio delegation of among others Sabina Chege and Amos Kimunya at his Nyang'indi village, Central Alego ward, rural home.

Media communications

"The statements aired were issued from our Nairobi Serena hotel. We do allow clients to request the use of the facilities for the issuance of media communication. We however do not take any responsibility for the statements made," the hotel's general manager Anthony Chege told the tribunal in a letter.

Ogwe deposited the first Sh30,000 at 5:12 pm according to the M-Pesa transaction receipt included in the letter. He paid the Sh30,000 the following day at 2:32pm for the use of the gardens for the second presser by the same team.

The hotel said it was unable to provide CCTV evidence of the proceedings of that day at the hotel because they do not store the footages beyond a month.

"The system overwrites after 30 days. The four-month-old data is not recoverable. We remain available for any other information required," Chege said.

Chege also denied claims that the commissioners were accommodated at the hotel between August 9 and 16. Last week, another Nairobi facility, Yaya Hotel, disclosed that they accommodated the four between August 15 and 19.

The Muchelule tribunal had written to Yaya Hotel asking whether the commissioners resided in their facilities over the election period. The tribunal also sought particulars of the people who made the bookings as well as the CCTV evidence.

The general manager, Edna Fernades, confirmed that the four stayed at the apartment between August 15 and August 19, occupying three apartments.

"Four guests were identified as IEBC Commissioners and two went straight to the said apartments as one of the bodyguards and two other commissioners passed by the reception for the check process. They were, however, unwilling to provide their details, so we have saved the CCTV footage for ID and records," the response went.

The management attached the booking records, including payments, vehicle movement, and their visitors. They also attached the CCTV footage of the delegation's arrival at 8.36pm on August 15.

The hotel also disclosed that Ogwe made the bookings for apartments 21, 23 and 27. A total of Sh320,550 was paid for the nights spent there in four M-Pesa batches of Sh31,000, Sh100,000, Sh100,000 and Sh89,550.

The information provided shows the commissioners were visited by a mix of people. While some are politicians, others were taxi drivers, caterers delivering food, lawyers and others simply listed as "private".

"We were visited in that apartment by relatives, lawyers, friends and political operatives from both Azimio and Kenya Kwanza divides, and it is shocking that the media opted to leave out that information," Masit said yesterday.

From the visitors' register supplied by the management, it is hard to tell the purpose of the visit or where the visitors came from, apart from a few notable names.