Kenya Kwanza alliance co-principal, Musalia Mudavadi, now alleges the government is planning to use over 46 independent presidential aspirants to rig out Deputy President William Ruto.
Mudavadi, the Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader, claimed that the State is bankrolling the independent candidates as part of a wider scheme to encourage election malpractice.
The ANC leader spoke at a rally in Nyamira County on Thursday, May 5, where he accompanied Ruto and Ford-Kenya party leader, Moses Wetangula.
“Why so many independent presidential candidates? If we are not keen enough, we may end up seeing a scenario where those who have found it difficult to rig Ruto’s votes now use the independent candidates to frustrate the election process.
“Some of these candidates may be government projects to scuttle and divide votes. It is unprecedented,” Mudavadi lamented.
The former Vice President urged the public to analyse every idea fronted within the election period, arguing that the smallest and most easily disregarded concept may highly influence the process.
“All these candidates can be used to create chaos during vote tallying, counting and tabulation and the orchestrators may use the opportunity to rig out Ruto,” he added.
Speaking during the late Mwai Kibaki's funeral, DP Ruto urged Kenyans to maintain peace going into the August General Elections.
“I think a befitting send-off to all of us, as we celebrate the third president, is for us to go into this election and make sure that election will be peaceful and that it won’t be necessary for us to have a handshake; I think we owe it to President Mwai Kibaki,” he stated.
The Office of the Registrar Of Political Parties (ORPP) cleared over 7,000 independent candidates and handed over the clearing task to IEBC - which is under pressure to deliver a free, fair and credible election.
Out of the 7,000, 46 are presidential aspirants, 106 governors, 147 senators, 110 woman representatives, and 5,845 Members of the County Assembly (MCAs).
The number of independent presidential hopefuls rose from three in 2017 to 46 in 2022. This is the highest number of presidential hopefuls in the history of Kenyan elections.
The Wafula Chebukati-led IEBC is facing a herculean task in clearing the 46 independent candidates alongside seven others who enjoy party backing.
IEBC needs to also ensure that the presidential candidates are accorded security during campaigns. This adds more burden to the police service which is already stretched.
The 2010 Constitution in Article 38(8)(b) lists the demise of a candidate for election as President or Deputy President on or before the scheduled election date as one of the reasons that would lead to the cancellation of the presidential election.
A new presidential election shall be held within 60 days after the date set for the previous presidential election in the eventuality of such a scenario, thus heaping more pressure on IEBC to ensure all the aspirants (once cleared) are well secured.
To cover the shortage of police officers, Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang'i, disclosed plans to form a special police force ahead of the August 9 polls.
The officers will complement the work of the National Police Service (NPS) during the polls.
