By Our Correspondent, NAIROBI
Kenya
The four electoral
commissioners, who have disowned the presidential election results, will each
file their responses in the petition challenging the outcome of the vote.
From left; IEBC commissioners
Justus Nyang'aya, Francis Wanderi Vice chairperson Juliana Cherera, and Irene
Masit address the media on August 16, 2022, at the Serena Hotel. |
Besides the Independent
Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and its chairman, Wafula Chebukati,
each of the other six commissioners has been listed as a respondent, a first in
a presidential election petition.
Vice-Chairperson Juliana
Cherera and commissioners Justus Nyang’aya, Francis Wanderi and Irene Masit
disowned Chebukati’s declaration of William Ruto as President-elect, alleging there was no
clear winner.
It has emerged the four
commissioners have each instructed a lawyer to file their responses, widely
expected to mirror their public statements that the vote tallying and
verification process had been bungled.
One of the four commissioners
yesterday told our corresponent that each of them will have a separate
lawyer to represent them at the Supreme Court but they will demand that the
IEBC foots the bill since they have been mentioned in the case as IEBC
commissioners and not as individuals.
“We have already identified
our lawyers and given them directives. We need our own lawyers because the
prayers Raila Odinga has given to the court in relation to the
case are different from what we have been listed to answer,” said the
commissioner on condition of anonymity.
The commissioner said that
even if called upon to testify as individuals, they are ready to say the truth
about what happened at the Bomas of Kenya prior to the declaration of the
results on August 15.
“We will always stand with the
truth and that’s why we need to have our own lawyers,” the commissioner said.
The official said that the
lawyers hired by the IEBC will be defending the position of the commission that
there was no rigging as alleged by the Azimio coalition.
However, their lawyers will
argue their position that commission chairman Wafula Chebukati side-lined them
in the verification of presidential results from 27 constituencies.
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