Raila Odinga claims IEBC officials planning to interfere with voter register

Opposition leader Raila Odinga (right) and Narok North MP Moitalel ole Kenta address supporters during a political rally in Narok on Sunday. Mr Kenta defected to Raila's ODM from Jubilee Party. [PHOTO: ROBERT KIPLAGAT/standard]

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has accused officials in the ICT department of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of conspiring to interfere with voter registration.

The claim comes as it emerged that IEBC and the Opposition may opt for an out-of-court deal as the two parties seek to solve the impasse over an audit of the voter register.

There are reports that the two teams have already met to discuss modalities of the deal after CORD went to court late last year and stopped IEBC from awarding the tender to audit firm KPMG.

Raila, who made a surprise visit to Kisumu yesterday accompanied by former National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende, told journalists that some individuals in the ICT department were conspiring to ensure that there was double registration of voters.

He noted that the new IEBC team had inherited officials of questionable integrity who were allegedly responsible for tampering with the voter register.

"There are particular individuals, especially those in the ICT department, whose integrity is in question. They are the ones tarnishing the name of the commission," said Raila.

A woman registers at Mathuki polling station, Mui ward in Mwingi Central constituency, Kitui County on February 6, 2017 as the deadline for the exercise nears. 42,000 new voters have so far registered in the County. Photo: Paul Mutua

He said conflicting figures released by the commission on the number of people whose records are unclear on the roll of voters was a sign that some individuals were deliberately conspiring to interfere with the records.

At the weekend, IEBC published the names of 78,000 people who have already been registered with shared or non-existent national identification card numbers.

This is even after the commission had earlier announced that there were about 128,926 duplicate ID card numbers but did not shed light on why the number had reduced by 49,544.

Raila alleged the conflicting figures were the result of a ploy by some individuals, including some at the commission's secretariat, who were deliberately altering the voter register.

"We have serious doubts about the IEBC secretariat and we have raised issues about the register that must be resolved before we head for the elections," said Raila.

He called on the commission to bring sanity to the voter registration as it neared completion.

RESOLVE IMPASSE

In seeking to resolve the impasse on the audit of the voter register, CORD's legal team led by senior counsel Tom Ojienda, Anthony Oluoch and secretariat head Norman Magaya, are said to have met IEBC chiefs at Anniversary Towers on Friday.

The commission's chairman, Wafula Chebukati, CEO Ezra Chiloba and legal officer Moses Kipkogei represented IEBC.

The two sides are expected to meet again today, a meeting that is crucial because any proposal agreed on will be presented in court tomorrow when the parties appear before Justice George Odunga.

Mr Magaya said there was hope of a deal, which would address concerns raised by CORD. He added that both sides were optimistic.

"We agreed in principle over some of the thorny issues we raised in court. If we agree then we shall inform the court that we have commenced discussions and thus seek leave of the court to complete the process," he added.

CORD went to court in December and obtained orders from Justice Odunga restraining IEBC from signing the contract with KPMG on grounds that the process was flawed.

The Opposition and IEBC have been at war over the actual 'extra' voters in the IEBC register, with the Opposition claiming more than 1.5 million voters are non-existent.

IEBC has acknowledged that more than 128,000 voters may have been listed more than once and has begun a process of cleaning up the system.

Raila and his co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka, who had their ID card numbers used to register other individuals, believe the number is still high.