Presidential Petition: Inside Juliana Cherera’s replying affidavit
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) vice chair Juliana Cherera has stated that they experienced a lack of transparency when working under the electoral chair Wafula Chebukati.
Cherera filed a response to the presidential election petition filed by Azimio leader Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua contending that they would have had no problem with the results had the IEBC chair allowed their verification.
According to Cherera, Chebukati transferred returning officers without consulting fellow commissioners as would be the norm.
“Returning officers are permanent members of staff at IEBC who could only be transferred after 5 years but Wafula Chebukati, in a departure from this transfer policy, transferred the ROs on 30th March 2022 without the approval of the commission,” she said.
Additionally, she stated that Chebukati secretly printed a second set of results transmission forms without involving other members of the electoral body.
Cherera indicated that on July 21, 2022, she was in Greece with another commissioner, Francis Wanderi to inspect ballot printing by Eyelpidon-based Lykos (Hellas) SA when they discovered Chebukati had instructed the firm to print two sets of forms 34A.
Form 34A is the primary presidential election results transmission form that is filled out at polling stations.
The Court of Appeal in 2017 ruled that results from polling stations filled in form 34A are final and can only be overturned by the Supreme Court after filing of a petition.
Cherera argued that various political parties protested the discovery of a second set of documents, boxing the IEBC into calling for a meeting with Presidential candidates to resolve the standoff.
According to her, it is for this reason that the 4 IEBC commissioners including herself distanced themselves from Chebukati’s declaration of William Ruto as President Elect.
In the petition, Cherera was listed as the 5th respondent.
Eight of the nine presidential petitions that were submitted to the Supreme Court earlier this week sought to annul the election of president-elect William Ruto.
After surpassing the constitutional “50 plus one” criterion, which stipulates that the winner of a presidential election must receive 50 plus one of the total votes cast plus an additional vote to avoid a runoff, Ruto was declared the winner of the general election on August 9.
Along with Odinga, other petitioners include Reuben Kigame, Khalef Khalifa, Juliah Nyokabi, John Njoroge Kamau, Daniel Kariuki Ngari, Okiya Omtatah, and Youth Advocacy Africa.
Kigame, gospel artist-cum-politician, had also entered the contest to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta before being disqualified by the election authority.
He claimed that the IEBC barred some presidential candidates by imposing arbitrary deadlines on them in order to be approved to run.
On the other hand, the head of the Chama Cha Kazi Party, Moses Kuria, filed a case with the Supreme Court asking the court to reject Raila Odinga’s attempt to have William Ruto’s victory declared invalid by the Azimio One Kenya Coalition.
