It is barely two months since Ezra Chiloba was fired as an IEBC CEO but then, his firing might be haunting the commission’s chairperson Wafula Chebukati. It is Chebukati who was at the forefront of Chiloba’s ouster, little did he know that his time was coming. Will he also be exiting the commission soon soon? Well, a trade unionist has made a fresh attempt to remove Chebukati from office for irregularly altering Kakamega Senate results during last year’s polls.
The petition by candidate Seth Panyako was received by the Clerk of the National Assembly on Monday last week and is due to be discussed by the Justice and Legal Affairs committee anytime.
The petition seeks to have Chebukati relieved of his position for allegedly engaging in an illegality during last year’s polls.
On Tuesday, the Committee chairman John Cheptumo told one of the local dailies that he had received the petition and his committee will deliberate on it.
“This is a serious issue. The committee will decide whether there is merit in the petition or not and how best to deal with it,” said Cheptumo.
Last evening, the Chebukati said he was unaware of the petition but vowed to defend himself should be required to.
Chebukati has survived criticism from his former colleagues and politicians in the last one year. He has on his side a High Court ruling that affirmed his position and legality of the commission even after four commissioners quit.
Internally, Chebukati has also prevailed over tension and discontent by staff since the August elections were nullified by the Supreme Court.
After the annulment, Jubilee went for Chebukati head and attempted to make his then deputy, Connie Maina, eligible as a National Returning Officer for the presidential election in case Chebukati refused to do so or resigned at the last minute.
At the same time, the chairman opened a serious fight with some of the staff, including former CEO Ezra Chiloba, whom he asked to step a side and allow another team to run the elections.
A fresh attempt to force out Chebukati was made in February when three commissioners — Connie Maina, Margaret Mwachanya and Paul Kurgat — said in a joint resignation statement that they had no confidence in Chebukati’s leadership.
An audit report presented to court last month also indicted the chairman and lifted the lid on the rot at the electoral commission.
The report listed systemic failures in management of elections, inflation of costs, turf wars and outright fraud by staff under Chebulati’s watch.
In his petition, Panyako, who is also the General Secretary of the Kenya National Union of Nurses, accuses the IEBC boss of false and malicious gazettement of Kakamega’s Senator election results.
The unionist claims that the Returning Officer wrongly declared Senator Cleophas Malala winner having garnered 228,432 votes.
Malala was followed by Panyako (ODM) who garnered 198,602 — according to the petition — in a race which attracted six candidates.
In the petition, Panyako claims that the results declared by the Returning Officer were later changed and Chebukati gazetted a different set of results without any justification.
Do you think Chebukati will survive this time round following this new petition?