Needed: A degree of honesty at IEBC vetting

IEBC Commissioners, led by Chairman Wafula Chebukati, address the press at Bomas of Kenya. June 6, 2022. [Samson Wire, Standard]

Presidential politicians have been meeting the electoral agency, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) these past two weeks, in a bid to be cleared to run for the highest office in the land, in just two months.

Only four were cleared from a long list of more than 52 applications.

Last week, Mwangi wa Iria supporters went on the rampage, demanding the inclusion of their candidate. Police were called in to disperse the rowdy crowds.

This week, Safina presidential candidate Jimmi Wanjigi arrived. The IEBC boss, Wafula Chebukati, a man of such cool deportment, you can never quite read his mood, told Jimmi he couldn’t be cleared for he lacked a university degree. He also didn’t have signatures from the requisite number of counties.

I thought Jimmi had a degree from Canada, or wherever he studied in North America, but I could be mistaken. He, instead, said he had been studying at Daystar and was scheduled to graduate in December.

Jimmi Wanjigi speaks after his bid for the presidency was rejected by IBC, June 6, 2022. [Samson Wire, Standard]

In fact, he didn’t understand what the fuss was about because another candidate, Walter Mong’are, had been cleared without a degree certificate.

In which case, Chebukati took another look at his file and declared Mong’are’s certificate revoked.

Being a lawyer of good standing, Chebukati should have used the Mong’are “precedent” and similarly cleared Jimmi. Instead, Jimmi’s intelligence on Mong’are sealed his own fate.

That doesn’t sound like a fair electoral practice; for if Chebukati can’t be trusted to clear candidates without fear of favour, then why should Kenyans trust to deliver on the more complex processes like counting votes accurately?