IEBC creates position of Deputy National Returning Officer for presidential poll

Presidential election preparation at Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi on Tuesday 24/10/17 [Boniface Okendo,Standard]

The electoral commission has created the position of a Deputy National Returning Officer for tomorrow’s election.

Ms Connie Maina, the commission’s vice chairperson, was gazetted on Tuesday in a notice signed by the Commission’s chairman, Wafula Chebukati.

Mr Chebukati kept the country waiting for his next step following Monday’s meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Chebukati has yet to communicate his decision about tomorrow’s poll as he had indicated last week when he told the country that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), as currently constituted, could not assure a credible process.

Last night, credible sources said the IEBC chair will file a replying affidavit in court today supporting postponement of the election.

Reports indicate that the IEBC chairman has yet to brief his own commissioners on what transpired between him and Uhuru.

“He has yet to brief us but that does not stop us from preparing for the elections. We have met observer groups and security chiefs to brief them. We are still meeting this evening and probably will brief the country today,” said Ms Maina.

The IEBC chiefs attended several meetings on Tuesday at the Bomas of Kenya, but Chebukati did not meet the commissioners.

Another room

The chairman was said to be operating from another room in one of the halls, while the other four commissioners - Maina, Paul Kurgat, Abdi Guliye, and Boya Molu - held a parallel meeting about 150 metres away.

Commissioner Margaret Mwachanya, who together with former colleague, Roselyn Akombe, sided with the chairman, did not turn up.

The parallel meetings saw Chebukati and the four commissioners separately meet election observer groups and hold a briefing with senior police offiers.

The first group to meet the commissioners was the African Union (AU) observer mission led by former South African President Thambo Mbeki, which met the  Maina-led group.

Mbeki then left Bomas and headed to the IEBC’s office at Anniversary Towers, where he met Chebukati.

After the session, the IEBC chairman left for Bomas at around noon as observers from the European Union Commission were meeting the four commissioners. He did not join them, instead walking straight to his room.

The EU observer mission later met the chairman separately. Both EU and AU did not issue a statement or address journalists.

In the afternoon, Ms Maina led the commission to a meeting with senior security chiefs led by Senior Assistant Inspector General of Police King’ori Mwangi. The security chiefs, however, did not meet Chebukati although he was at Bomas.

Speaking after the meeting, the vice chairperson ruled out postponing the election in certain parts of the country.

 “We are not postponing elections in any part of the country. The security chiefs have mapped hot-spots where extra deployment will be required to protect our staff, election materials, and equipment. We are again meeting to review that mapping,” Maina said.

She added that the distribution of election materials was almost complete, with the last batch of ballot papers that arrived in the country being distributed this morning to areas around Nairobi.

Yesterday Chebukati did not appear in public or give a comment.

“The chairman asked us to proceed with the meetings as he was handling other issues. I am not aware that he has refused to meet or share a podium with us,” Maina said when asked about the conspicuous absence of Chebukati.

She added that Ms Mwachanya had sent apologies for her absence, as “she is not feeling well”.

Separate meetings

Asked why the chairman had met Mbeki separately, Maina said she had advised the former South African president to reach out to him.

“I advised him (Mbeki) to reach out to the chairman and I think he called him and they agreed where to meet,” she said.

Last week, Chebukati accused a sections of the commissioners of frustrating him at the plenary and suggested that they may be taking instructions from outsiders to push for decisions not in tandem with the law.  

Maina said the commission had ruled out the possibility of postponement of elections.

Postponement was one of the options that Chebukati is said to have proposed but was overruled.