‘Formula’ used to rig poll, says Kanu

Kanu, which lost the Kericho by-election to Jubilee, on Sunday claimed it had engaged statisticians who unearthed a formula that was used to rig the mini-poll in favour of its rival.

Party Chairman Gideon Moi termed the just-concluded by-election as a “total farce and a mockery of the democratic process”.

Mr Moi said Kanu candidate Paul Sang would have won by a huge margin were it not for the alleged formula abetted by the IEBC that gave the Jubilee candidate, Mr Aaron Sang, more votes than he deserved.

IEBC boss Ezra Chiloba on Sunday said the claims by Kanu were unsubstantiated and maintained that the elections were free and fair.

“It is not the first time the party is making those unsubstantiated claims against the commission. For the record, the commission has not received any complaint whatsoever of either electoral malpractice or misconduct, from the party, as required under the procedures of the Elections Act. This sustained assault is offensive to the Code of Conduct of Political Parties, which the party is a signatory to,” he said.

The election was won by Mr Cheruiyot who garnered 109,358 votes against Mr Sang’s 56,307.

“Resulting from the sham election, Kericho has two senators. One computer-generated senator in the name of Aaron Cheruiyot, and the people’s senator, Paul Sang,” said Kanu secretary-general Nick Salat.

Kanu, which ran a well-oiled campaign that gave the Jubilee team, led by Deputy President William Ruto, a run for their money, claimed the electoral body used a computer generated formula which added half a vote more to every vote cast for the Jubilee candidate.

KANU'S CONCERNS
The leaders were speaking at the Kanu headquarters in Nairobi where they gave a scathing assessment of the conduct of the IEBC in the by-election.

Mr Salat said the IEBC rigged the election in favour of JAP to help “powerful people in the Rift Valley to save face”.

The officials said the alleged formula gave one-and-a-half votes to the JAP candidate, but this increased progressively up to 1.9 votes as polling came to a close.

They said had the results not been manipulated, the Kanu candidate would have won by 126,493 votes against JAP’s 38,162, and the rest of the field sharing 2,510 votes.

They also presented samples of Form 35A, which they alleged had been pre-filled and signed by one person.

Mr Salat also questioned IEBC efficiency in announcing the results of 400 polling stations one hour after voting had closed.

However, the official said the party would not be protesting to the IEBC or petitioning the courts, saying they would not go to the same people they have complained about.