Chebukati: DPP to probe Ruto claims on vote rigging plan

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati (center) flanked by IEBC commissioners, officials from Kenya Editors Guild and Kenya Union of Journalists addressing the press in Nakuru on March 4, 2022. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has written to the Director of Public Prosecution to investigate vote-rigging remarks by Deputy President William Ruto during his recent trip abroad.

IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati yesterday told a Senate committee that the electoral agency lacks jurisdiction to investigate the matter since the DP made the remarks in a foreign nation.

“Our (legal) team informed us that we could not proceed with the investigations because of jurisdiction issues and we referred the matter to the DPP, who has powers to enforce the code of conduct and we are waiting for that feedback,” Chebukati told Senate’s Justice Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee (JLAHRC).

In response to a question by nominated Senator Isaac Githua, Chebukati said the IEBC had planned to probe the DP’s remarks in Maryland, United States, but could not collect the evidence it needed. 

The committee’s chair Nyamira Senator Okong’o Omogeni wondered why the DP had not been summoned yet the IEBC had taken action against others who had allegedly alluded to past vote-rigging incidents.

"What is different with the DP who made similar but serious allegations?” Omogeni posed