On Thursday, September 1, Supreme Court Justice Isaac Lenaola faulted IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati following his rush to announce presidential results.
Chebukati, announced William Ruto as the fifth president-elect on Monday, August 15, the results were disowned by four IEBC commissioners Juliana Cherera, Irene Masit, Justus Nyang’aya, and Francis Wanderi.
According to the Constitution of Kenya 2010, Chebukati had still one more day to ensure that the presidential results were verified by the whole commission before announcing them.
Lenaola, poked holes in the Chairperson’s failure to use the extra day to iron out issues with the other four “opaque” commissioners.
“Why did you not wait until that day, reach out to the commissioners – now named the four – try to reach a consensus to address the questions on the 27 Constituencies so that this suspicion would not have been an issue? Is there any other reason why you did not take an advantage of the extra day to do what you have to do?” Lenaola questioned.
However, in an interview with KTN News on Friday, September 2, former Amani National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Barrack Muluka defended Chebukati’s rush to announce the presidential results.
Muluka said there were visitors at the national tallying center who had gone there to derail the will of the majority of Kenyans.
While citing the 2017 incident in which IEBC official Chriss Musando disappeared and his body was later found dumped, Muluka said Chebukati was in a rush to announce the presidential results for the sake of his safety.
“If you were Chebukati, you were torn between doing what the deep state has said or honoring as he told us his oath of office… And there was not going to be tomorrow when we say there was another day still left. There was not going to be another day. Perhaps there was not going to be Chebukati the following day,” Muluka said.
