Former IEBC commissioner Roselyn Akombe has claimed Ezra Chiloba, the commission’s ex-chief executive officer, has threatened her to shut up over Chris Msando’s murder.
Akombe, had last week revealed that Msando, the commission’s slain ICT manager, was led to “the slaughterhouse” by IEBC insiders.
She said she is willing to testify at an inquest if there is one, and likened the killers to Judas Iscariot.
On Sunday, she took to Twitter to allege that Chiloba had sent her a threatening email following her interest to testify on Msando’s mysterious murder three years ago.
“Do not attempt to rewrite history. Our silence is not your license,” read an email allegedly authored by Chiloba.
She said the ‘Chiloba’s threats’ were a confirmation of her earlier assertions that Msando’s death was clearly an inside job.
“It confirms my call for an inquiry. Kenyans deserve the truth. I owe it to you,” Akombe maintained in her tweet on Sunday.
However, Chiloba, who has retreated to farming following his acrimonious exit from the commission in 2018, could neither confirm nor deny the alleged email.
“Really? No comment,” Chiloba said in a short message to the Star when asked about Akombe’s claims.
Akombe, on July 30, announced that she was ready to testify on the unsolved murder of her former colleague on a day the Msando’s family was marking the third anniversary after his brutal execution.
“…Painful that instead on this day three years ago, your own colleagues led you to the slaughterhouse. Like Judas, they sold you for thirty cents,” Akombe tweeted.
“We will find justice for you, no matter how long it takes,” the former commissioner said.
Akombe has previously put the mess that roiled the August 7 polls at Chiloba’s doorstep.
In her end of assignment report, authored after she flew Kenya 18 October 2017, Akombe accused the ex-CEO of using time constraints as an excuse to avoid competitive bidding and dish out direct procurement of lucrative contracts.
“The ballot papers saga is one in which we the commissioners were held captive by the secretariat… this was the trend in high-cost issues. Time was used as a way of tying your hands to take the decision that the CEO had wanted from the very beginning,” Akombe said.
In a clear endorsement of the Supreme Court annulment of the August 8 polls, Akombe says Returning Officers showed her accurately filled-out forms, different from the ones Chiloba submitted to the Supreme Court.
“I met with several Returning Officers who showed me the signed forms, accurately completed and signed that they transmitted, and yet they are not the same ones presented to the Supreme Court. Why the discrepancy?” Akombe asks.
She also complained that many issues related to technology at IEBC were shrouded in secrecy and were only handled by Chiloba and then ICT Director James Muhati without accounting to the commissioners.
“The dominance of Safran/OT Morpho in all aspects of the commission’s work is an aspect worth in-depth investigations, including their role in the 2017 election,” the report states.
On Thursday, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said it was unfair for Akombe to speak three years later yet she was around when the Msando murder took place.
“It appears there is something she knows which we don’t know. I believe she should provide that information to the investigative agencies. Perhaps it will help for the investigations to be completed,” Chebukati told the Star.
Msando was found murdered and his body dumped in a thicket in Kikuyu, Kiambu County, a week before the contentious 2017 General Election.
His body had visible wounds and an autopsy revealed that he was strangled.
Akombe appears to have remained the lone voice openly agitating for justice for Msando as investigations appear to have collapsed.
Msando had promised he would ensure the IEBC tech system in the 2017 elections was foolproof.
In her report, Akombe said she had been suspicious of the commission’s results transmission system.
Her confidence in the system nosedived after the torture-murder of Msando, she said.
“The dominance of Safran/OT Morpho in all aspects of the commission’s work is an aspect worth in-depth investigations, including their role in the 2017 election,” her report stated.