Nasa likely to continue push for electoral agency’s reforms

Senior officials of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) are not yet off the hook despite the Supreme Court’s finding that no individual had committed an election offence.

Chief Justice David Maraga ruled that although the court had found systematic institutional problems within the commission, there were no finger prints of any individuals.

“There was no criminal intent on the first or second respondent, commissioner or member of staff of the first respondent,” said the CJ.

But the ruling is unlikely to blunt efforts by petitioner Raila Odinga of Nasa to have the commission reconstituted before the repeat election scheduled for October 17.

COOPERATE

Wednesday, Nasa lawyer James Orengo said the court had found the commission culpable and its Anniversary Towers headquarters “should be a crime scene”.

Mr Orengo said Nasa was ready to cooperate with Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko to bring any charges against individuals at the commission.

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati, who was the second respondent, had earlier shaken off questions about his culpability in the election fiasco by saying the court had not pointed fingers at him.

Nasa has named a number of officials including commissioner Abdi Guliye, CEO Ezra Chiloba, ICT director James Muhati, voter education director Immaculate Kassait and legal director Praxedes Tororey as the people who must leave the commission before the repeat election.

CHARGES

Mr Tobiko had also been waiting for the judgment to point him in the direction of people he could bring charges against.

Mr Chebukati had hoped for leads in the full judgment on officials who bungled the election to take individual responsibility.

This judgment means he must pursue the returning officers whose forms had problems as pointed out by the judges on his own.

Mr Chebukati has also targeted senior officers in the ICT department for sanction.

WANNING CONFIDENCE

In a memo leaked to the press on Tuesday, the chairman wants three officers in the ICT directorate suspended in what he described as necessary action to restore waning public confidence in the commission’s ability to prepare and deliver a credible repeat presidential poll.

In the memo, Mr Chebukati directed Mr Chiloba to suspend ICT director James Muhati, ICT coordinator Paul Mugo and ICT officer Boniface Wamae.

The trio managed the commission’s Secure File Transfer Protocol platform in the General Election and the chairman said they fell short in assisting the commission to successfully discharge its collegial and constitutional mandate.

Further, Mr Chebukati noted that the officers acquired additional rights to delete files from the commission’s servers and other escalated privileges to the FTP server under the chairperson/national returning officer account.

EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE

“The ICT security framework and security measures deployed in the General Election failed to eliminate the risk of external interference as users with foreign IP address could log on to the commission’s system and perform functions before, during and after the elections,” Mr Chebukati said.

The Nation learnt that Mr Chebukati had also tried to convince the commissioners to suspend Mr Chiloba without success.

The chairman had summoned the commission for a meeting that was to deliberate Mr Chiloba’s responses to the memo from the chairman which blamed the chief executive for the systemic flaws in the August 8 General Election.

And even though the commissioners deliberated on the matter for the better of Monday, there was no consensus on how to deal with Mr Chiloba who appears to enjoy protection from “forces within the government.”

RESPONSES

Mr Chebukati is said to have been unhappy with Mr Chiloba’s responses, pointing out they raised more questions than answers and urged the commissioners to back his bid to suspend Mr Chiloba, pending investigations.

However, there was no consensus and the matter was put on the vote, upon which Mr Chebukati lost.

Mr Chebukati has been under pressure from Nasa, lobby groups and even churches to take necessary measures to identify and isolate those who were responsible for the mess that led to the nullification of the presidential election.

On Monday, a group of clerics led by Bishop Aggrey Mukilima of the Friends Church, demanded that the IEBC takes steps to urgently agree with stakeholders on the way forward in line with the Supreme Court ruling.