Drama marked eligibility hearings

The dispute over the registration of Ms Kethi Kilonzo as a voter was characterised by drama, allegations of blackmail and counter-accusations.

While Ms Kilonzo maintained that she was validly registered by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and issued with an acknowledgment slip, IEBC insisted that they could not find her name in any of their registers. The polls agency said that the booklet where the slip came from was stolen.

The genesis of the dispute was a petition by former assistant minister Agnes Ndetei and the People’s Party of Kenya, through its secretary-general John Kuria. The two argued that Ms Kilonzo was not a registered voter and was not qualified to vie for the seat.

Ms Kilonzo accused Ms Ndetei of blackmail, submitting that she wanted to stop her from succeeding her late father Mutula Kilonzo because she had declined the former assistant minister’s offer for her to run for the seat on a Jubilee ticket.

Ms Ndetei admitted before the tribunal that she approached Ms Kilonzo’s mother twice to try to convince her to run on a Jubilee ticket.

During the hearings, Ms Kilonzo stated that she was a validly registered voter at NCC Social Hall in Karen, Lang’ata constituency. She said she applied to be registered using a copy of her expired passport and a copy of her national identity card since the original had been stolen.

Makueni County returning officer Salad Boru said that he agreed to clear Ms Kilonzo based on the strength of the acknowledgment slip after failing to verify that her name was in the IEBC register.

IEBC’s director of registration Immaculate Kasai told the tribunal that the acknowledgment slip was not properly issued to Ms Kilonzo since it was from a booklet that had been stolen.

According to the commission, the booklet was exclusively used to register retired president Mwai Kibaki, after which it could not be traced. She added that it was not possible to register a person without original copies of identification documents.

In her defence, Ms Kilonzo stated that it was the IEBC officials who can answer the questions since her concern was to be registered, which was duly accomplished, and that she was under no obligation to check if she was actually listed.