Four out of the seven IEBC commissioners on Wednesday evening stormed out of a meeting in protest of the new appointments made by the Chairman Wafula Chebukati.
The commissioners had been locked up in a meeting that lasted the whole day, discussing the Chairman's controversial appointment of a seven-member team to oversee the fresh presidential poll.
It is said that the four - Vice Chairperson Consolata Nkatha, Prof. Abdi Guliye, Dr Paul Kurgat, and Mr Boya Molu - accused Chebukati of acted alone and did not consult them while selecting the team.
"We were shocked because at no one point did we discuss or agree to effect changes in our secretariat. We have asked for an urgent meeting to discuss this matter because the commission is run by the commissioners, not an individual.
"Secondly, some of us are of the view that the chairman assumed and purported to exercise powers he doesn't have," one protesting commissioner told journalists.
They maintained that the IEBC Secretary and CEO, Ezra Chiloba, is the one mandated to carry out such changes and accused some of the senior officials of having been compromised by politicians.
"Assignment of duties to staff and implementation of commission decisions is the work of the commission secretary (Chiloba), who is also the accounting officer. We have also reliably learnt some of us met some senior political players in this election on Monday evening. We have to be sure that some decisions such as these were not the product of such meetings as alleged.
"We have also seen another memo the chairman sent to the commission secretary. In that memo, he is asking the CEO to do things we have not discussed. For example, he is asking CEO to immediately punish people within ICT department but hasn’t even identified such officers. We can’t continue like this otherwise the commission will fall apart," another commissioner challenged.
Commissioners Roselyn Akombe and Margaret Mwachanya are said to be in support of the Chairman's move, expressing readiness to work with the new team.
"The chairman made the changes in his capacity as the national returning officer. I fully support his decision. We are scheduled to hold a meeting to deliberate on the same," one of the commissioners stated.
The commissioners rescheduled the failed meeting to Thursday, hoping to reach a consensus on the matter.
