Former Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairperson Wafula Chebukati on Tuesday, January 24, exposed the fallout between two members of the Cherera Four camp, during the compilation of the presidential election results.
Appearing before the Justice Aggrey Muchelule-led tribunal at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) offices, Chebukati pointed out that commissioner Irene Masit and his former colleague Francis Wanderi did not wish to work together during the entire exercise.
Chebukati noted that Masit and Wanderi, who were in charge of security and welfare, sought his immediate intervention in a bid to work separately.
"Commissioner Masit came and informed me that she did not want to work with Wanderi. So I split security and welfare and she was in charge of welfare while Wanderi handled security. (Former) commissioner Wanderi also came to me and stated he could not work with Masit," Chebukati stated.
The former IEBC chair did not, however, reveal the circumstances that led to the fallout between the two.
He pointed out that the commissioners worked in tandem to offer peaceful and transparent election results. He affirmed that Boya Molu and former vice-chair Juliana Cherera were in charge of the media and call centre.
According to Chebukati, he resorted to separating the duo, whereby Masit was in charge of welfare while Wanderi was in charge of security.
The former IEBC chairperson alleged that Masit and the other three were later in agreement when they sought the final results to be changed.
While referencing the meeting with Members of the National Security Advisory Committee (NSAC) on August 15, 2022-whose agenda, according to Chebukati, was for the officials seeking Azimio leader Raila Odinga to be announced as president.
Alluding to this, Chebukati pointed out that the four dissenting commissioners agreed with the move and sought for the results to be changed.
"When the results came, the conversation turned to how can we find a way to change the results?" He stated.
Part of Chebukati's affidavit indicated that Commissioner Masit and Wanderi were of the view that the results should be pushed towards a rerun which in their view would be a win-win situation.
Responding to this, the former chairman claimed that Cherera hinted that the commission should force a run-off by changing the vote difference between President William Ruto and Raila to rejected ballots.
"I understand that it meant that we should find a way to remove these 233,211 votes but I don't know how that was to be done.
"The suggestion came from Vice-chair Juliana Cherera that we should make those votes become rejected votes and I think that's where the word manipulation comes from there," Chebukati noted.
