Candidates censure Chebukati over handling of governor poll

"The IEBC chairman is handling the election politically as opposed to legal procedure set out in the Constitution allowing room for some of us to claim that the arrangement is meant to favour a certain candidate," he argued.

He argued that Chebukati should have allowed the governor elections for Mombasa and Kakamega to take place on August 9 and then call by-elections within 60 days instead of postponing the poll.

According to Dr Kingi, what the IEBC chair was organising was not a by-election since no election took place.

He noted that IEBC has created a crisis for candidates since they cannot campaign nor prepare for the poll.

Kingi said instead of inviting the candidates to Nairobi, the chairman should have travelled to Mombasa to save them costs.

"I am willing to attend the consultative meeting at Bomas but it is expensive. He indicated it is a consultative meeting without stating the agenda. This is bad for us candidate. We do not know exactly what we are going to discuss," he noted.

Awiti Bolo of Vibrant Democratic Party said he would only attend the Bomas meeting if he travels to Nairobi for other businesses.

"We are tired and disappointed by the change of plan. The morale of voters is low after the commission changed dates. They do not know what is going on and many might not come out to vote when a new date is fixed. There is confusion," Bolo said.

Bolo told IEBC to gazette a date for the election and allow candidates time to prepare instead of calling boardroom meetings with us.

"I do not think anything useful will come out of the meeting. Is the chair calling us to fix the new date? Why can't he just gazette the date and allow us time to prepare?" he posed.

ODM governor candidate Abdulswamad Nassir said he would be represented at the meeting by his running mate Francis Thoya.

Voters allied to Nassir had filed a petition against IEBC, demanding the election go on as earlier planned on August 23 (tomorrow). The case will be heard today.