Irene Masit, one of four commissioners who refused to take ownership of the August 9 presidential election results, has detailed how the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman, Wafula Chebukati, invited the three Venezuelans into the country without their knowledge.
According to Masit, Chebukati did not take responsibility as chairman of the Commission to inform other commissioners that the three, Salvador Javier Sosa Suarez, Joel Gustavo Rodriguez Garcia and Jose Grecorio Castellanos, were jetting into the country with some IEBC materials.
She accused her boss of errors witnessed in the constituencies where elections did not take place, arguing that it was by design. Masit argued that it was with stark clarity that it was by Chebukati's omission or commission that errors in the ballot papers came by.
“It is not by surprise that in the month of July 2022 when the nation was struck by the news of Venezuela nations Salvador Javier Sosa Suarez, Joel Gustavo Rodriguez Garcia and Jose Grecorio Castellanos, a matter that is now in the public domain, arrested having arrived in the country with election materials, none of the commissioners was aware of their coming nor possession of election materials but the chairman, Wafula Wanyonyi Chebukati,” Masit stated in her affidavit.
The controversial stickers were confiscated by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on July 21.
Masit said that Chebukati openly defended the three foreigners in public at a time when the Commission did not expect the arrival of the election materials, thereby usurping the powers of the IEBC, in what she termed a total disregard of the law.
"I was not aware of the coming of the foreign nationals with election materials and the same had not been brought to the attention of the commissioners either at the plenary or through any other form of communication and it was surprising as it was suspicious that the chairperson was the only person aware of their arrival."
Besides the controversial foreigners, Masit also accused Chebukati of not granting her and other commissioners, Juliana Cherea, Francis Wanderi and Justus Nyang'aya the mandate to verify presidential results before the final announcement.
She claimed that Chebukati's conduct was all along questionable when he chose to grant himself full mandate of verifying the presidential results without the knowledge of her and other three commissioners.
“The conduct of the chairman through the entire electoral process was whimsical and solely intended to invalidate the presidential election by rendering the said results cloudy and in effect overthrow the constitution,” Masit added.
A pressing concern by Masit was when Chebukati did not allow the team from the Commission to go and inspect the printing of ballot papers in the run up to the election and ascertain that indeed the papers being printed were the ones which had been approved by the Commission.
While at the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya, Masit said she was not given the privilege as the Commissioner to have a full glare of Form 34C before the verification.
"I was not involved in the creation of Form 34C and I was not allowed access to the same by the chairman."
The affidavit also accused Chebukatri of remaining the only person with access to the total tally on the back end up to the time of the contested declaration of results against the hallowed constitutional entitlement to a transparent process.
