IEBC PRESS STATEMENT- IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba sidelined as special team is named
Chebukati drops Chiloba from team that that will oversee October 17th presidential election
PRESS STATEMENT
Nairobi; Tuesday. 5 September 2017
In my capacity as the National Returning Officer for the presidential election and in accordance with Section 38 of the Elections Act (2011), I have hereby appointed the following staff members to serve in a project team for purposes of the presedential election to be held on 17th October 2017.
- Project Coordinator: Mr. Marjan Hussein Marjan
- Head of Operations: Dr. Sidney Namufungu
- Head of logistics: Ms. Nancy Kariuki
- Head of Training: Mr. Bernard_Misati Moseti
- Head of Legal: Ms. Salome Oyugi
- Head of ICT: Mr. Albert Gago under the direct supervision of the National Returning Officer.
- Head of the National Tallying Center: Mr. Silas Rotich
As the National Returning Officer, I wish to assure all Kenyans of my commitment to ensure that this fresh presidential election is done in accordance with the Constitution, the relevant laws and that it reflects the sovereign will of the Kenyan people.
WAFULA W.CHEBUKATI
CHAIRMAN
In surprise changes made even before the details of the Supreme Court ruling on the section heads responsible for messing up the August 8 presidential election, Mr Chebukati picked a project team in which he sidestepped all those that NASA leaders had demanded be removed from poll management.
In doing so, he shoved aside the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) CEO Ezra Chiloba and broke up and shared out the key functions of his office - chief manager, operations, logistics, ICT, and tallying. The changes, believed to have been made to raise the credibility of the fresh election while satisfying NASA’s conditions for participating in the new race, will have a big impact in the way it will be managed since it will be Kenya’s first in which the electoral body’s secretariat will be playing either an observer or completely peripheral role.
Chebukati formed the parallel management team to oversee the October 17 repeat elections after resistance to attempts to restructure the current secretariat. Chebukati got only the support of one commissioner while the other five either kept quiet or asked that the matter be put aside as there was no basis to reorganise the secretariat. On Friday, Chebukati told journalists that his team shall conduct a clean-up of the secretariat and get rid of those responsible for bungling the polls. He also invited the Director of Public Prosecutions to conduct criminal investigations. During the meeting on Monday, the issue of staff reorganisation was lined up as agenda number five but aborted midway after stiff opposition. “Some of the commissioners just told the chairman that we have to wait for the full verdict of the Supreme Court to effect any changes. They insisted IEBC is an independent body and can’t be pushed to implement any reforms by outside forces,” a member of the commission said.
The new changes mean that Chiloba and his team ( Deputy Betty Nyabuto, the commission’s director of voter registration and elections operation Immaculate Kasait, Manager of operations Mwaura Kamwati and head of ICT James Muhati) will be sidelined and comes after sharp divisions emerged in IEBC over attempts to reorganise its secretariat. Highly credible sources indicate that the commission is divided on the proposal to send home some of its key staff who are accused of bungling last month’s elections. On Monday, IEBC held a stormy plenary meeting where the agenda to discuss the contemplated changes was shelved after Chebukati unsuccessfully attempted to introduce the topic.
 |
| IEBC BOSS SIDELINES CHILOBA |
