Moments before the declaration of the winner of the August 2022 presidential election, a split emerged within the electoral agency IEBC.
The split had four commissioners on one side led by the commission’s vice chairperson Juliana Cherera and three others on the other side led by the commission’s chairperson Wafula Chebukati.
The Cherera camp claimed the commission’s chairperson had rushed to declare the presidential election winner yet there was no agreement amongst all commissioners’ members as expected by law.
Cherera’s camp included; Irene Cherop, Justus Abonyo, and Francis Wanderi who have since maintained they cannot take ownership of the presidential results declared by their boss Wafula Chebukati.
Alo has been said about them by members of the public including claims they are being used by Raila Odinga and some invisible forces to cast doubt on William Ruto’s election win.
It is Cherera’s emerging closeness to retiring Mombasa governor Alia Hassan Joho and Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party leader Raila Odinga that has much talking.
In one photo, Hassan Joho is seen romantically feeding Cherara a cake, probably at someone’s birthday party.
In yet another photo, she is in the company of one other lady and two men visiting Hassan Joho in hospital.
It is clear from the photos, that she either was a favorite employee under the Joho administration or they had a special relationship.
As if that is not enough, in two other photos, Cherara takes a photo beside Raila Odinga at the Mombasa county government offices where Raila seems to have visited.
Kivumbi.co.ke has since established that Cherera is a former employee of the Mombasa county government and as such, that is where she could have met the two top politicians in Azimio la Umoja One Kenya alliance.
Coincidentally, Cherera and the three other commissioners were appointed just last year to join IEBC.
Many are now questioning whether their latest move to disown and thus appear to discredit the presidential election results is genuine.
It does not help matters that they also struggled to explain what the main issue was with the results when they held a second press conference on Tuesday, August 16, 2022.
Unconfirmed reports also indicate that the three other commissioners in Cherera’s camp are closely related to Raila Odinga and former Baringo Senator Gideon Moi’s allies
