Controversial to the end: Makueni mini poll proves headache to IEBC

By GEOFFREY MOSOKU

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission staff prepares to airlift election materials for Kibwezi East constituency in readiness for today’s Makueni senatorial by-election. [PHOTO: PAUL MATUA/STANDARD]

KENYA: The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was last night racing against time as the clock ticked towards polling in Friday’s Makueni Senate by-election.

Last-gasp preparations for the by-election occasioned by the sudden death of respected lawyer Mutula Kilonzo were as hectic as the controversies surrounding the race have been bitter, leaving the IEBC with just hours to prepare and transport ballot papers to polling stations.

Most of yesterday, some 300 clerks were huddled up in Bomas of Kenya for an unusual task: Manually pasting a strip containing details of Wiper candidate Mutula Kilonzo Jnr on each of the 324,000 ballot papers, an exercise that took hours.

The ballot papers, which were delivered in Nairobi from the UK printer in the morning, had excluded his details but space had been left to affix the candidate’s particulars at the bottom of the leaf.

The cut-and-paste ballots were only sanctioned by the High Court on Wednesday night to forestall a constitutional crisis after it became apparent the printed ballots bearing the candidate’s picture and other details could not be secured in good time.

Each of the 300 clerks was supplied with batches of ballot papers and, under tight security, pasted the portrait and symbols of Mutula Jnr, who was nominated as Wiper party’s candidate to replace her sister Diana Kethi whose nomination was nullified.

By 5pm, ballot papers destined for Kibwezi East and Kibwezi West had been dispatched by air.

The IEBC hired two helicopters to facilitate the transportation of bballots and other election materials.

“We received 324,000 ballot papers from the UK this morning (Thursday) and the first batches for Kibwezi East and West constituencies have been dispatched,” Chief Electoral Officer James Oswago said.

He said IEBC had chartered a chopper to deliver the ballots and would have an extra one on standby to ensure distribution went on without hitches.

Tight security

Oswago promised by the end of the day yesterday, all ballot papers would be dispatched to the respective constituency office for onward transmission to the 914 polling centres.

“By 6.30pm, all the materials will have left Nairobi for Makueni,” Oswago told The Standard last evening.

He added that an extra 100 senior IEBC staff have been deployed from Nairobi to Makueni.

An earlier IEBC statement had explained the more than 100 senior officials had been deployed with the specific assignment of ensuring all cleared candidates for the senatorial contest are on the ballot.

“The team has been trained and will undertake only the ballot papers verification duty,” read the statement.

There are 298,474 registered voters in Makueni and 914 polling streams.

Five candidates including Mutula Jnr (Wiper), Prof Phillip Kaloki (Narc), John Harun Mwau (Pick), Jane Wavinya Kitundu (LPK) and Urbanus Katumo (independent) are contesting the election.

Two security agents will be on duty to watch over the poll. About 2,000 police officers will be stationed at polling centres and additional 1,000 officers on standby to provide required security.

“We normally have two police officers per polling station and of course there are other officers who will provide the normal security patrols,” Oswago confirmed.

The commission has also recruited 1,828 persons to work as presiding and deputy presiding officers in the 914 polling stations and 2,742 clerks have been recruited and trained for today’s exercise.

“Voting and transmission of results from 914 polling stations in the six constituencies (Mbooni, Kilome, Kaiti, Makueni,  Kibwezi West and Kibwezi East), will be undertaken by other set of staff.

“All the strategic materials for the by-election are ready. We are waiting for the ballot papers, which are being airlifted from Bomas. All is smooth here,” IEBC vice chair Lilian Mahiri-Zaja told The Standard from Tawa Social Hall in Mbooni constituency.

IEBC will not have a national tallying centre in Nairobi but the media will be facilitated to transmit results from the county tallying centre in Wote, according to the commission.

No challenges

On Thursday, IEBC commissioner Abdullahi Sharawe assured the voters polling stations would be opened by 6am today. He defended the pasting of Mutula Jnr’s portrait on the ballot papers, saying it is not a new phenomenon.

“It is only that we have never had such an occurrence in Kenya, but this is not new in electoral processes across the globe. It happened recently in South Africa,” he said.

Sharawe said IEBC had sorted out the dispute over hiring of vehicles to transport electoral material.

“We issued a directive that vehicles should be hired from local owners in accordance with the commission’s policy. Those that came from outside have been withdrawn and we don’t expect any transport challenges.”

On Thursday, an election observer group, the Institute for Education in Democracy (IED) said they had deployed 400 observers to monitor the Makueni by-election.

However, IED faulted High Court ruling that granted IEBC the greenlight to affix Mutula Jnr’s name on the ballot paper, warning the move may result into an election petition that may further discredit an already battered IEBC credibility.

“The commission should have postponed the elections for a few days to enable the printing of ballots with all the security features. The patch work that has been adopted may cause credibility issues,” IED chairperson Jane Ogot said.

The observer group said their mission will be to establish whether IEBC has adopted new strategies in technology and promote citizens confidence in the commission after the March 4 elections.

“It will be a test for IEBC to show the citizens they have remedied the malpractice that they were accused of in the March elections and also to prove they are up to the task of delivering democracy to Kenyans,” she told journalists in Nairobi.

— Additional reporting by Onesmus Nzioka and Paul Mutua