IEBC returning officers march in solidary to demand justice

IEBC staff and activists hold demonstrations calling for better security and an end to profiling, harassment and intimidation of electoral officials. [Denis Kibuchi, Standard]

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) returning officers are demanding justice for victims of what they call electoral injustices.

They also want better security and an end to profiling, harassment and intimidation of electoral officials.

The poll officials together with representatives of civil society organisations marched from IEBC headquarter at Anniversary Towers in Nairobi, passing through Kenyatta Avenue, then State House Road to AIC Milimani Church to make their demands known.

Carrying posters with the message "Returning officers' lives matter", they later joined family and friends for a requiem mass of their departed colleague Daniel Musyoka at the AIC Milimani.

Musyoka was a returning officer for Embakasi East Constituency in the August 9 elections but went missing on August 11. His body was found in a forest in Loitoktok, Kajiado County. He will be buried in Mwala constituency in Machakos County.

"Today what we are telling the country is that we are human beings and Kenyans. We are tired of intimidation by the political class and we are demanding an end to this," said Beatrice Muli, a returning officer who worked in Kiambu.

"Some of us were physically assaulted at tallying centres and their property stolen," she said.

Another returning officer, Mohamed Kanyare, was shot and injured in Eldas Constituency, Wajir County, and now his leg is amputated. Geoffrey Gitobu, who worked in Gichugu Constituency, died on Tuesday and a post-mortem examination showed he had a blood clot.

According to Patrick Muthee, who was the returning officer for Westlands Constituency in Nairobi County, Gitobu might have died due to stress and intimidation.

"Elections should not be a matter of life and death," said Muthee who read a petition to Parliament, Office of Director of Public Prosecutions, Inspector General, National Cohesion and Integration Commission and other State organs.