Sack IEBC officials who bungled poll, say activists and clergy

What you need to know:

  • Under the Kura Yangu Sauti Yangu initiative, the civil societies said IEBC should sack all staff implicated in subversion of voters’ will. 

  • Their call came a day before the civil societies petition Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko to charge the officials.

  • Ms Gladwell Otieno, the executive director of African Centre for Open Governance, said the sackings must be done before the fresh poll.

Rights activists and some religious leaders want IEBC officials who bungled August 8 polls to be sacked and prosecuted.

The two groups on Tuesday said officials found to be partisan should not be allowed to manage October 17 repeat presidential election.

SACKINGS

Under the Kura Yangu Sauti Yangu initiative, the civil societies said IEBC should sack all staff implicated in subversion of voters’ will. 

Their call came a day before the civil societies petition Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko to charge the officials.

Ms Gladwell Otieno, the executive director of African Centre for Open Governance, said the sackings must be done before the fresh poll.

“Kenyans cannot risk going to another election with the same people who bungled the presidential election that was nullified by the Supreme Court,” Ms Otieno said.

The call comes a day after IEBC chiefs buried the hatched in Naivasha and resolved to work together on the repeat poll.

AUDIT

However, Ms Otieno said although bonding is necessary, the serious issues as raised by the court and the details of the audit report of its servers need urgent solution.

“It’s not just about retreating somewhere and appearing on camera smiling and therefore believing that you have resolved the issues” she said.

“From what we see, there is little evidence the commission will change.”

Separately, religious leaders in Kisumu also called for the prosecution of all IEBC officials who bungled the August poll.

The leaders from a collection of churches under the banner of Kisumu Clergy forum asked Mr Tobiko and Director of Criminal investigations Ndegwa Muhoro to investigate and prosecute the officials.

ID BUYING

Speaking on behalf of the group, the Forum Chairperson Winnie Owiti also asked president Uhuru Kenyatta to stop using State House and state resources to lure voters.

"Millions of shillings of public resources were used in the elections and therefore those found culpable must be charged in court," said Bishop Owiti. 

The clergy also claimed some government officials were buying national IDs from vulnerable electorate.

She said the culprits were offering up to Sh2000 for an ID and advised residents not to sell their rights to votes.