How Masks Will Be Used to Rig Elections- IEBC Told

by Faith Musyoka on Tuesday, 2 March 2021 - 6:16 pm

EBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati at a conference held on October 22, 2018

File

Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala has sensationally claimed that supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) plan to use special masks to rig the upcoming Matungu by-election.

The senator made the complaint at the IEBC offices on Tuesday, March 2.

He said that reports of people buying fake Identity cards were on the rise and this had prompted ODM members to make special masks so that presiding officers, POs, could easily know them.

ODM Deputy Party Leader Governor Wycliffe Oparanya (right) issues a nomination certificate to party candidate for Matungu David Were (left) on January 6, 2021.

“There is a lot of speculation that people have been buying IDs so we will have people who are not the owners of the ID coming to vote.

“The friendly POs will identify them using those special masks and allow them to vote with IDs that are not theirs and that is what we want you to address,” the senator said.

The IEBC official on duty went on to explain to the senator about the voting process and why his claims could not possibly be true.

“Maybe I should take you through the voter identification. Once a voter comes to the polling station, we have KIMS (Kenya Integrated Management System) which we have loaded with the current register that is available,” the official said.

The senator on February 24, accused Wycliffe Oparanya, Kakamega County Governor, of distributing branded county fertilizer and seeds to ODM supporters alone with the aim of wooing them to vote for the ODM Matungu candidate.

“I have received reports that county government officials are distributing free county branded fertilizer to ODM households at night.

“We have investigated about this fertilizer and we have seen where it is being packed. I wonder why the county government led by Governor Oparanya is distributing fertilizer to only ODM supporters and not all of Matungu residents,” the senator said. The Governor has dismissed the allegations.

The senator added that the county government was ferrying people to different hotels to bribe them with Ksh1,000 while pretending that they were on a seminar.

The Matungu by-election will be on March 4. Fifteen candidates including nine independent candidates are running for the seat.