IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati has come out to explain his visit to Executive Director of the Azimio Secretariat Raphael Tuju at a location in Karen, Nairobi.
Chebukati said he visited Tuju after he was involved in a road accident on his way to the late Daniel Moi’s funeral in Kabarak in February 2020.
He said commissioners Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu also visited Tuju at his Karen home while he was recuperating from injuries sustained in the accident.
The IEBC boss accused Tuju of attempting to create a false impression over the visits.
Chebukati said the two commissioners and him were subjected to character assassination by Tuju who “falsely tried to infer ill motive” to the visits when he was involved in an accident.
“He attempted to take advantage of a benevolent gesture of vising him on his own invitation while recuperating from his injuries to achieve the malicious end of maligning our image before the public,” Chebukati claimed.
After Azimio rejected the presidential result announced by IEBC, Chebukati claimed that Tuju and other leaders of the coalition had wanted the results moderated.
Tuju then threatened to make public a CCTV footage of the two commissioners at his house in Karen.
He said Chebukati had planned a secret meeting with him at a location in Karen and dared him to explain to Kenyans what it was all about.
But speaking during a post-election evaluation and boundaries workshop held in Mombasa on Friday, Chebukati said the actions by Tuju border on criminal culpability and cannot be swept under the carpet and assume a normal state of affairs.
“We must confront and address this issue in order to secure a conducive environment for staff to discharge their duties without fear of unlawful reprisals. As we deliberate, we remain alive to addressing these issues with finalities,” he added.
Post-election evaluation is a significant component of the electoral cycle.
Not only is it an international best practice but is it also anchored in the Constitution as a core mandate of the commission.
Article 88(4)(h) of the Constitution obligates IEBC to facilitate the observation, monitoring and evaluation of elections.
“It is therefore important that we relive our individual and collective experiences of the 9th. August 2022 General Election and in retrospect have a snapshot assessment of the electoral cycle activities of the said election,” Chebukati told the meeting. BY THE STAR