The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party is set to petition the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) over the involvement of Cabinet Secretaries in the preparations of the August polls.
Through a statement, the party’s Secretary General Veronica Maina said wants the Commission to summon ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru over the remarks he made that his Ministry is closely working with Azimio One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga to deliver credible polls in August.
“We have noted a tendency by senior government officials to purport to assume roles and positions intended to influence the conduct and the outcome of the August 2022 election in particular ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru,” read the statement.
“We will be doing a formal communication to the Commission chair to first of all protest the purported interference, the undertones the innuendos that have been generated by that video implying that there could be something they are planning behind the scenes,” she added.
Mucheru made the remarks during a meeting of Odinga with Central Kenya leaders on Wednesday in Nyeri County where he also pledged his allegiance and declared state support for the former Prime Minister.
“So some of us are there to ensure we have free fair elections making sure systems and everything are working and obviously we are working closely with Baba to ensure that that is the case and we’ve been looking and seeing the information we are on the right track we are on the right path,” Mucheru said.
Director General of Ruto’s campaign secretariat, Josephat Nanok noted that Mucheru should be questioned warning that such remarks could easily fuel unnecessary tension in the country ahead of the polls.
According to Nanok, there might be a plot to circumvent the will of the people in favour of Azimio coalition candidate as the docket of ICT plays an integral role in the polls in the tallying and relaying the results across the 47,000 polling stations.