Kimutai fights removal and his political future before Senators

Kericho County Governor Eric Mutai arrives for his impeachment hearings day three at the Senate Chambers, Parliament, Nairobi. August 29th,2025.[Elvis Ogina/Standard] Beleaguered Kericho Governor Eric Kimutai was yesterday in the throes of a fight for his political future in the Senate as MCAs continued with their spirited bid to kick him out of office. On the third day of the impeachment hearings, the Senate was later expected to make a vote that would seal the fate of Kimutai after what has been a protracted legal duel over the integrity of the electronic system used in the ouster of the Governor on August 15. While the Governor, through his defence team, built his case around the fact that the system was "porous" and open to manipulation, the prosecution moved to assert that Kimutai's ouster was above board and immune to outside interference. But after an intense last- day trial, the Governor's case was dealt a major blow after a report by the Information and Communication Technology Authority found that the system was foolproof. The report on the integrity of the electronic voting system used during the impeachment motion against the Governor yesterday gave the system a clean bill of health. The report prepared by the Authority following a directive by the Senate Speaker Amason Kingi on Thursday tabled before the Senators on Friday showed that indeed an electronic voting process took place and that 33 MCAs voted in favour of the ouster motion, simultaneously disputing claims of interference contrary to earlier allegations by 18 MCAs. "The number of MCAs who voted in the motion were 33 MCAs as extracted from the voting module logs," read the report in part. It went on to note that it was impossible for any other person who had a link to vote on the motion on behalf of an MCA or another MCA. "You cannot vote for any other person/MCA with the link provided,"it added. Further, it showed that there was no evidence of multiple voting or other compromise of the voting system and/or any impropriety in the voting system or process. "From the evidence provided and the access logs collected from the voting system logs, the admin and system events log, there is no evidence of multiple voting neither is there evidence of other compromise of the voting system and/or any impropriety in the voting system and process," stated the report. Other findings by the report were that Kericho County Assembly voting system is hosted off-premise and out of country and that it is an in-house developed system, where the local staff resources developed the system and that it was managed and administered by Alfred Kimutai Korir, the Head of ICT as the system's Super Administrator. "The system went to production on August 12, 2025, in readiness of the County Assembly voting exercise," the report added. The Speaker Kingi had commissioned for an audit of the voting system after the Senators and the Governor's defence team on Thursday poked holes into the technological system used during the ouster process following claims that unauthorised persons could have accessed the system and that the use of the payroll, and ID numbers as passwords could have compromised the integrity of the process. This was after the defence team on Wednesday tabled evidence claiming that three MCAs voted more than once and that one IP address voted nine times. According to documents tabled before the Senate the by Katwa Kigen who was leading the defense, the voting process- which was through an online link- was entirely dependent on access to an internet enabled mobile phone but that on 15th August 2025 during the impeachment proceedings at the County Assembly, no prior audit or verification was undertaken by the Speaker and the Clerk to confirm that all eligible MCAs had access to internet services and mobile phones. "Notably, some of the 18 MCAs who opposed the impeachment lacked internet connectivity on the material date and yet have allegedly been recorded as having participated in the vote. This discrepancy raises serious concerns regarding the authenticity and integrity of the voting process and the results," read the documents in part. "The MCAs include Amos Kimutai Birir (Kapkatet Ward), Chepkirui Edna Tonui, Bosuben Kibet Hillary (Cheplanget Ward), and Martin Kiplangat Cheruyot (Kapkugerwet Ward.)" Prior to the tabling of the report, issues of whether the Speaker flouted the County Assembly Standing orders by directing that the House votes electronically -despite a decisive vote being conducted on acclamation- dominated the session. A section of the 18 MCAs who opposed the impeachment motion against Governor Mutai also appeared before the House to shed light on how, despite not having internet access on the material day, they were allegedly recorded as having participated in the vote. They also complained that despite abstaining from voting, this was not captured by the system. And during cross-examination by the defense team, the witnesses corroborated video evidence adduced before the Senators showing that the Speaker opted to resort to an "alien" electronic voting system and not manual voting, despite their contestations. One by one they claimed that despite the number of "nays" being more than the "ayes" the speaker went on to use the electronic system which they had been earlier informed was prone to interference. They also said their decision not to vote using the electronic system was because they didn't trust it as there had been rumours that it was already compromised and their worries were compounded by its rushed implementation. "I did not vote because I did not want to partake in an exercise that was going to be shambolic...In a few minutes to voting, that is when we were told of electronic voting, something we have never used before. We had heard rumours before the impeachment that these people were going to rig the vote," Nominated MCA Irene Chebet. Nominated MCA, Bavina Chepkirui Serem told the House of how she abstained and an attempt to declare her seat vacant before debate of the ouster motion. "The other reason was that the previous night we heard that a new system had been introduced and members supporting the impeachment posted on social media claiming to already have 33 MCAs in support," she said. "I could also not trust the system because some two minutes into the tabling of the motion to impeach the Governor the Speaker out of the blues communicated that our seats would be declared vacant based on a lie that we have missed eight consecutive sittings...I had to go to court to challenge the decision and got a court order allowing me to participate in the motion." But the prosecution team led by Elisha Ongoya argued that the electronic voting system was provided for by the County Assembly standing order and that the standing orders had been approved by among others the MCAs Irene and Bavina. The prosecution also put Kapkatet MCA Amos Bii -who was among the 18 MCAs- on the spot- questioning how is it that they had all signed the affidavit on the same day as the ouster and why he claimed not to have an internet-connected device yet he was a member in very many WhatsApp groups at the county assembly. "In your submission, Hon. Bill, you indicated that your phone does not have internet and is not GPS enabled. How comes you are active on WhatsApp with a phone and line that is not internet-enabled?" posed advocate Elias Mutuma acting for the prosecution. To which Bii replied, "I have two (phones) but my PA is operating the other one." This however only prompted a question from Senator Seki Lenku who challenged the MCA to convince the House that his PA didn't vote on his behalf. "I agree with my PA he did not vote for me. The stamp shows county assembly of Kericho. It was voted by someone inside the Assembly," MCA Bii responded.

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