Julianna Cherera on 16th August 2022 provided a full explanation as to why she and her team found the election process opaque.
Speaking from Serena Hotel, Cherera and her three counterparts stated that the final election tallies were conducted in a way that did not involve all the IEBC commissioners in the final decision making.
The commissioners stated that Chebukati was reluctant to provide them with the final tally so that they could verify and allow him to announce the results.
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Cherera said that the results announced by Chebukati alone and that the IEBC wishes to distance itself from the election results.
“We therefore decline to take ownership of the said results because the aggregation resulted in a total exceeding the percentage of 100 which cast doubt on the accuracy of the source of the figures tallied and when we demanded that we verify our record, the chairman declined, overruled us and insisted on declaring and announcing the said result,” said Cherera.
The commissioner proceeded further stating that the chief returning officer did not provide the total number of votes cast.
Chebukati did not involve the commissioners
“Contrary to the constitution and legislation, the results declared and announced did not indicate the total number of registered voters, the total number of votes cast or the number of rejected votes if any. In this regard, the results announced by Mr. Chebukati lacked a critical ingredient namely the total number of votes cast to support the percentages scored by the four candidates.”
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This statement comes a day after the four commissioners took off from the Bomas of Kenya and held a press briefing saying that the final phase of vote tallying was handled in an opaque nature.
On query on whether the IEBC could provide contradicting figures. Cherera said that she and her team of 4 could not answer that because Chebukati did not provide them with the figures. The commissioners further stated that the IEBCC server backend was only accessible to Mr. Chebukati.
100.01% Summation
According to the Cherera, the summations give 100.01% tally, which should be mathematically impossible.
“The emphasis is that the commission’s chair person has conducted the election as though he is the national returning officer, a non-existent role, and his role in declaring results that were not approved by plenary by all seven commissioners, renders the result unconstitutional to the extent that this is his own result as opposed to those of IEBC.”
Raila’s speech at KICC
Following the press briefing, Raila Odinga held his own separate press briefing at the Bomas of Kenya where his sentiments aligned with those of Julianna Cherera and the three other IEBC commissioners.
In his speech, Raila Odinga stated that the constitution did not mandate the head of the IEBC to be a dictator, but to ensure that the voting and tallying process is carried out effectively and in a transparent manner. More on this in a subsequent article.
