Jubilee used extra ballots in 2013, says Raila Odinga

The Jubilee Coalition colluded with corrupt election officials to print extra ballot papers that were used to rig the 2013 presidential election, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy has claimed.

Cord leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday said the extra ballot papers were printed by Smith & Ouzman, a British firm, and smuggled into Kenya days before the March 2013 elections.

“Extra ballot papers were printed and transported to Kenya through Geneva, Switzerland, and even the NIS was aware of this. I can produce a person who was in Geneva and saw all this,” Mr Odinga said at a news conference in Nairobi.

The smuggled ballot papers were taken to “Jubilee areas”, according to the Cord leader, who was accompanied by co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula.

“They were the ones which some of our MPs found being counted at Kenyatta University.”

Mr Odinga made the claims in the wake of reports from a UK court that Kenyan election officials received millions of shillings in bribes from the British company over a two-year period.

UK prosecutors have filed in court papers accusing senior election officials of corruption, including Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan, former chief executive James Oswago, former official Davis Chirchir (Energy Cabinet Secretary) and former deputy chief executive of the IEBC’s predecessor, the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, Mrs Gladys Shollei.

The allegations, made in the prosecution of Smith & Ouzman Ltd and four of its directors for corruption at the Southwark Crown court relate to the Interim Independent Electoral Commission and are alleged to have occured between 2009 and 2010.

DEMANDED RESIGNATION

Mr Odinga demanded the immediate resignation, arrest and prosecution of Mr Hassan, Mr Chirchir, Mrs Shollei and current and former IIEC and IEBC officials linked to the fraud allegations.

He said Cord’s 900-page evidence that was rejected by the Supreme Court, where he had challenged the 2013 presidential election results, contained evidence showing that extra ballot papers were printed and smuggled into the country to help Jubilee steal the election.

“Of concern beyond the corruption allegations is that Smith & Ouzman, apart from giving bribes to the Kenyan election officials, also printed additional ballot papers for Jubilee, which were used to rig the 2013 presidential elections,” Mr Odinga said.

Mrs Shollei, who was sacked as Judiciary registrar on claims of corruption, had presided over the scrutiny of the IEBC tallying of votes on behalf of the Supreme Court in the 2013 election petition, he said.

“Before joining the Judiciary, she was an official at IEBC and is implicated in the corruption,” Mr Odinga said.

He accused Mr Chirchir of representing the Jubilee Coalition in the scrutiny of votes at the Supreme Court despite his alleged role in the corrupt dealings at the IIEC.

“What is being adduced in court in London points to a serous, baffling and shameful integrity and credibility gap on the part of these present and former officers and an indictment of the Jubilee regime.

“It cannot be that Jubilee does not know what these officers did.”