Nasa scoffs at poll plans as Jubilee gives its approval

The National Super Alliance (Nasa) on Tuesday said it was not satisfied with the preparations of the repeat presidential election, saying its demands had not been met.

The opposition’s representatives emerged from a meeting last evening with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission angry and frustrated, accusing the commission of planning to hold an election that will not adhere to the law.

“The measures they are taking are half-hearted and they are not addressing the mischief that the Supreme Court identified,” Siaya Senator James Orengo said last evening, after the meeting at the Bomas of Kenya.

TALKS
However, the Jubilee Party emerged from a 45-minute meeting happy with the IEBC’s preparations and saying it had no conditions.

“We are happy with the preparations that have been put in place by the IEBC,” Mr Ruto said after the meeting.

“As a party, we have no conditions, no minimum conditions and no irreducible minimum conditions,” he added.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati, who chaired the meetings with representatives of both sides, described their discussions as fruitful and downplayed any misgivings, saying the problem might have been that the commission had not put in writing what it had done to address their concerns.

PUBLIC HEARINGS
He said the IEBC would make public its contract with OT-Morpho, the French firm providing the technology for identifying voters and transmitting results.

IEBC is also going ahead with its training of officers who will handle the election.

The Deputy President asked the commission to present its views on the controversial bills to amend the electoral laws, to Parliament, where public hearings began Tuesday morning.

He said the party would forward its list of 41,000 agents by the end of the week.

SAFARICOM

Commissioner Roselyn Akombe said IEBC had decided to have Safaricom as the primary transmitter of the results from polling stations.

This, she said, would reduce the number of stations without 4G or 3G connection to 6,250.

She said the number was higher earlier because there were areas where Safaricom had good network but had not been allocated the role of transmission.

Each gadget has slots for two SIM cards, which make it possible for one to be used where the other is found to be weak.

NASA
She said Nasa had already sent two information communication and technology experts to be embedded with the IEBC, while the United Nations Development Programme had volunteered experts to help in this area.

Both the leading candidates are on the campaign trail, though, a possible indicator that the election could proceed as scheduled by the IEBC on October 26.

Mr Orengo however said the opposition was still not happy with the IEBC.

“In this meeting, none of the issues we had raised as irreducible minimums for purposes of holding an election within the 60 days required have been met or responded to and we left on the basis that nothing has been agreed,” Mr Orengo said.

CONSTITUTION
He said the issues could be resolved within 30 or even 10 minutes if Nasa was to be convinced that the election would be held in accordance with the Supreme Court decision, the law and the direction from the Court of Appeal decision on the case by Maina Kiai and others before the August 8 elections.

“We hope the commission will respond substantially to the issues that we had raised on September 12 this year.

"If we go the route that the commission has set out, then it will be an election that is held within 60 days but not within the Constitution, the applicable law and the determination of the Supreme Court,” he said.

DEMANDS
Last evening, Mr Orengo and Nasa secretariat boss Norman Magaya said the IEBC had not responded to their queries.

“There has been no movement from where we were yesterday. There has been no response yet in the manner we had indicated. On our end, nothing has moved an inch,” Mr Magaya said.

He suggested that the main problem was that the IEBC’s responses have not been well articulated and in writing.

In response, Mr Chebukati said: “I think what Nasa is saying is that we have not reduced in writing what we have done in response to their demands."

PROTESTS

Nasa maintained its demonstrations would continue as planned on Thursday and told off envoys who sought to put pressure on them to stop.

“Whenever we hold demonstrations, it will be in strict compliance with our rights under the Constitution and it is a right we’ll continue to enjoy without any coercion, intimidation or blackmail for us to behave in a certain fashion or a certain manner,” Mr Orengo said.

Nasa also laughed off the threat by Western countries to impose sanctions on hardliners, saying that its members were not too enthusiastic about going to the United States of America.

DIPLOMATS
He said the diplomatic community should concentrate on the issues Nasa has raised.

He said the envoys should also ask about the 18 issues raised by the EU observer mission after the elections.

Mr Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka arrived first and went into a meeting with Mr Chebukati and IEBC vice-chairman Consolata Nkatha.

They then went into a bigger meeting attended by Nasa leaders Moses Wetang’ula, Musalia Mudavadi, Siaya senator James Orengo, lawyer Paul Mwangi and members of the Nasa secretariat.

Mr Odinga did not talk to the press and left it to Mr Orengo and the technical team to state that nothing of substance had happened.