So Chebukati postpones the Kakamega and Mombasa governor elections once again this time to unknown dates. Even why these elections were postponed in the first place is one of the dubious decisions the IEBC chair made. That is what voter suppression looks like. They don’t want those people out there at the booths on the presidential voting day.
But now Chebukati has postponed the Kakamega and Mombasa governor elections again until further notice.
In a statement on Wednesday, chairman Wafula Chebukati said this is due to the harassment of commission staff at Bomas of Kenya on Monday.
“This has instilled fear within the staff who are now unable to report to the office for duty. This harassment must stop forthwith,” Chebukati said.
“In view of the prevailing circumstances, the Commission has postponed the by-elections slated for 23rd August 2022, to a date to be announced through a gazette notice,” Chebukati said.
Chebukati is now suspending all pending elections in so many parts of the country. If we allow this culture of the IEBC chair too scared to hold elections then we shall have lost our country because no elections would be held anywhere. IEBC staff are not enemies to Kenyans. They are loved and treated very well.
We had that tragedy where an IEBC officer was killed and the police have told Kenyans they are working to find the killers and did with the issue. Fine. But now Chebukati wants to spread mass hysteria about IEBC staff not being accepted anywhere in Kenya. That is not true. Kenyans have not demonized IEBC staff and Chebukati should not do so to save his skin after declaring bogus presidential election results.
Kenyans are trying to do everything in this election to avoid violence and chaos which harms everybody and they have done an excellent job doing that. Now Chebukati wants to spread this nonsensical fear that IEBC staff are in danger and so elections cannot be held. IEBC staff are not in danger in Kenya including Wafula Chebukati the IEBC chairperson. That is the reality he will have to face sooner than later after the courts are done with him and his fraud.
Chebukati says that the people who attacked IEBC staff at Bomas should be arrested. That is right. Anybody who attacked people at Bomas on Monday should be arrested and a lot of people were attacked with chairs and other instruments of violence. It was on live TV. Some Azimio leaders barely escaped with their lives.
If Chebukati is serious about police action and arrests he needs to call the police and ask them to arrest the four commissioners who rejected his presidential election results and said they could not verify and support those results and now the IEBC Chairman says the four commissioners were engaged in a criminal act of asking to forge the elections so there is a “Re – run”.
This is a criminal police investigation issue and the four IEBC commissioners are also free to file criminal charges against Chebukati for producing fake results. The Supreme Court can’t deal with that and the IEBC chair needs to take it to the criminal court.
Otherwise, leave our IEBC staff and field workers out of this and stop creating animosities between the voters and the voting staff. That could lead to a very bad scene and situations and Kenyans don’t need it and will prevent it by every means possible.
If we ever reach a situation where Kenyan citizens and IEBC electoral staff are enemies there will be no elections in Kenya and we would lose the country altogether. That will not happen because Kenyans are committed to their country. Chebukati is one person and he does not represent or speak for IEBC staff working on the ground in every election. It will stay that way.
It makes sense that Chebu and his boss would be thinking those two elections for the governors of Kakamega and Mombasa are in diehard Azimio strongholds and is not good for them. You blocked them already. Now you let them go next week Tuesday, August 23, 2022, and Azimio is all over the map in Kenya and at the Supreme Court?
No. Ruto and his boy said. Postpone it and their man did it. Fine but don’t bring any enmity between our beloved poll workers who only work a few months in five years and the Kenyan voters. It is not necessary.
And here is the deal. Kakamega and Mombasa governorship elections are held sometime in September after the Supreme Court rules that Ruto’s President-Elect status has ended after a week and a half.
Can you imagine how those elections would look as Kenyans head to a Re-run of the 2022 presidential elections? Be careful what you ask for. Common sense says that noisily all the times. At some time we may need to listen.
Chebukati has already confessed publicly that four commissioners rejected his results and told him so at Bomas on the day of announcing the presidential election results. Case closed.
Here is a sad possibility in the Supreme Court. How about if the fighting factions of the IEBC and the crazy chairman forces the court to declare IEBC at the moment to be a dysfunctional institution not capable of making any decisions for the country? God forbid.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
