The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has come out clean after vote-rigging claims surfaced in the ongoing Kiambaa parliamentary by-election.
The vote-rigging claims were made by UDA, an outfit heavily linked to Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto through Gatundu South Member of Parliament Moses Kuria.
Kuria who withdrew his PEP candidate in favor of UDA’s John Njuguna sensationally claimed that the commission’s clerks were colluding with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party to rig votes in favor of Jubilee candidate Kariri Njama.
Kuria, on his social media page, claimed that IEBC clerks from Kingothua Primary School were collaborating with Jubilee agents where they took ballot papers and went to fill them out in a hidden vehicle.
“Dear Wafula Chebukati. You are not picking my phones. IEBC clerks from Kingothua Primary School have sneaked our KIEMS kits and conducting voting at valentine grower’s plantation,” Kuria said in a Facebook post.
However, the electoral commission dismissed Kuria’s allegations, saying that the car he claimed to be used in the fraud belongs to the IEBC.
“The car in question is an IEBC vehicle being used by Commission staffs that are providing technical support to the polling process. The post by Moses Kuria is, therefore, a false allegation,” IEBC said.
The former Finance Minister was at the tallying center to represent the Jubilee Party but was confronted by a group of youths from the Jubilee party rival, presumably the United Democratic Alliance.
In a video that went viral, the youths were heard chanting ‘Kimunya must go’ claiming they could not let the electioneering process proceed if Kimunya was not leaving.
“Hakutakuwa na Amani Mpaka atoke hapa.Enda Kipipiri uko hatukutaki hapa,(There will be no peace until he gets out of here. Go back to Kipipiri (constituency), we do not need you here!),” said a youth in the crowd.
