Cord, IEBC locked in row over secret 2013 election tape

Cord on Sunday demanded the disbandment of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) over allegations that last year’s General Election was rigged.

However, the IEBC disowned the alleged recording of one of its top officials, who according to the tape, had raised doubts about the credibility of the election just a day before the results were announced.

IEBC declared Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and his running mate, Mr William Ruto, winners of the March 4, General Election, an outcome that Cord leader Raila Odinga challenged in court but lost.

On Sunday, the commission described the tape as hearsay and said it was not worth responding to.

“This is not the first wild allegation about elections. Even on the very election date, rumors were doing the rounds that the IEBC CEO James Oswago had been kidnapped,” said Ms Tabitha Mutemi, the commission’s communication and corporate affairs manager in an e-mail to the Nation.

Cord leader Moses Wetangula and ODM acting party leader Anyang’ Nyong’o said the allegations against IEBC were not new but were only coming to light now.

According to the two, Mr Kenyatta did not get the 50 per cent plus one of all the votes cast to be declared the winner in the first round.

“There were massive malpractices. The elections were not credible and it was not possible to declare anybody a winner,” Mr Wetangula, the leader of the Minority in the Senate and also the Ford-K party leader.

Prof Nyong’o took cue, saying that Cord accepted but did not agree with the ruling of the Supreme Court which unanimously upheld Mr Kenyatta’s election.

According to him, Cord accepted the ruling for the sake of peace and national unity.

He accused IEBC of bungling the election.

“IEBC is a criminal organisation which should be disbanded and a new one constituted,” he said.

The Kisumu Senator alleged irregularities in places like Mathare and Kisii where, he claimed, ballot boxes disappeared.

He said Kenyans wanted to know the truth about last year’s elections and that it could not be business as usual for Kenyans right to elect people to govern them to be abused.

“Kenyans should remain vigilant about this. They should not just forget and move on as you cannot move away from the truth,” Prof Nyong’o said.

SECRET RECORDING

This was in response to reports about the secret recording of a man thought to be a senior official of the IEBC questioning the credibility of last year’s poll. (READ: Shocking new revelations of 2013 election intrigues)

The conversation was allegedly recorded a day before the announcement of the results.

In the tape, the official claimed that the integrity of the electronic system could not be guaranteed and that the IEBC used a different voters’ register from the one it had published.

The man also claimed that commission’s decision to reduce the number of voting centres by about 1,000. He alleges in the recording that the IEBC had unknowingly hired ‘moles’ in its IT department and this could have led it to be infiltrated.

But IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan defended the commission from wrongdoing.

“How can one believe such a recording and then use it to bring to disrepute the integrity of the commission? We are not happy about it,” he said in a telephone interview with the Daily Nation.

The commission’s acting chief executive officer Betty Nyabuto also expressed surprise over the recording and dismissed claims it was from a senior official of the IEBC.

“This cannot have happened. It was a surprise to us all. I think people should do more research before making conclusions,” she said.

Mr Wetangula said the most credible thing IEBC should have done after the March 4 polls was to call for a re-run due to the irregularities as there was already a budget for it and that Kenyans were ready for a second round of voting in the presidential election. According to IEBC, Mr Kenyatta garnered 6.1 million votes against Mr Odinga’s 5.3 million.

“Instead of calling for a re-run, they manufactured imaginary numbers, panel beat and smoothed them before announcing false results,” he said. “Even the margin of error shows the re-run was the most credible conclusion.”

He said Cord opted to go to court hoping for a review of the results, provided evidence that showed IEBC numbers did not add up, “but the court rejected our evidence.”

He questioned why IEBC had taken more than a year to release the official results of the elections.

“IEBC has been in agony to get Kenyans to accept the official figures. Cord is ready to stand and swear by the Bible that President Kenyatta did not get 50 (per cent) plus one votes to be declared winner and a re-run would have been favourable to us,” Mr Wetangula said.