Wanderi: Chebukati walked in, out of meeting only to announce 'own results'

IEBC Commissioner Francis Wanderi. [File, Standard]

IEBC Commissioner Francis Wanderi has sworn in court papers that chairperson Wafula Chebukati announced "his own presidential results" on August 15.

William Ruto of UDA was declared the winner after getting 7.18 million votes (50.49 per cent) against Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya candidate Raila Odinga's 6.94 million votes (48.85 per cent).

Wanderi, who has been listed as the seventh respondent in the petition filed by Raila Odinga and Martha Karua, says in his affidavit that the results declared by Chebukati did not receive approval by all commissioners.

Wanderi says Chebukati usurped their constitutional role of verifying and tallying the results and went ahead to announce the presidential election winner without following the due procedure.

Wanderi said on August 15, a few hours before the announcement of the presidential results, Chebukati called them to a meeting at the Bomas of Kenya boardroom.

The commissioner said the agenda was to discuss how the errors noticed in some forms 34A and 34B would be corrected before the final announcement.

"Between 1:20pm and 4:20pm, Chebukati, while constantly walking in and out of the boardroom, kept us waiting and eventually walked back into the boardroom and read to us his own final results," said Wanderi in his affidavit.

"He then read to us the constitutional threshold for one to be declared the winner of a presidential election, who had won the presidential election, and who had met the threshold for the number of constituencies required.

"Despite our request to discuss and understand how the final tally was arrived at, he refused to entertain any discussions from us. Chebukati then retreated and came back with a copy of the document he was reading the tallies from, and each of us was given a copy.

"In a huff, Chebukati then indicated that he was going to the auditorium to announce the results of the presidential election, and to quote him verbatim, [he said]: 'any of you who is willing to accompany me, is free to do so'. He then took off accompanied by commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye," said Wanderi.

The commissioner accuses Chebukati of "making unilateral decisions on critical issues", occasioning the filed petition that is questioning the credibility of the presidential polls.

"I still stand by pronouncements made by commissioners Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi and Irene Masit that the results announced by Chebukati were his own results, but not those of the commission."