Omtatah files case to block aspirants with tainted past

A case has been filed before the High Court to bar aspirants who have a tainted past from contesting.

Activist Mr Okiya Omtatah has filed the case against Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), seeking to force it block persons without integrity from vying.

Mr Okiya has trained his guns on business persons who were implicated in the Covid-19 supplies scandal, stating that IEBC is likely to give them a green light to contest.

“The IEBC will be able to vet aspirants for political office to ensure that they satisfy any moral and ethical requirements prescribed by the Constitution or by an Act of Parliament,” he stated in his court papers filed yesterday.

While raising his concerns, he claimed that in December 2020, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officers arrested a Kenyan for receiving a bribe and he was even sacked.

Come March 2021, the man had earned a nomination to run for a parliamentary seat in a highly contested by-election. Then in May 2021, he won the election, all this notwithstanding the fact that he had been charged in 2021. Okiya continued: ”It is a matter of public notoriety and concern that many people adversely mentioned in theft of public funds, including the so-called Covid-19 billionaires, are lining up to vie in the August 9 .”

According to him, allowing persons with tainted past to vie for public offices is a threat to Kenya’s constitutional order.

He stated that electing leaders who have a history of corruption is detrimental to the country’s good governance and the war against corruption.

“To normalise the participation of people without integrity in the political life of the republic is to clearly demonstrate a lack of understanding of the obligations placed on elected leaders, ” he continued.