Chebukati: I’ve never discussed ballot procurement with Wetang’ula
The Chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Wafula Chebukati, dismissed claims that he met Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula over the procurement of ballot materials.
While addressing the media on Thursday at the Bomas of Kenya, Chebukati said procurement is the work of the secretariat.
“The commissioners don’t do procurement. We do policy, strategy, and oversight. I’ve seen an attempt by some newspapers to profile me and Moses Wetang’ula. That is very unfortunate. He is a Bukusu like me, we were born in Bungoma and I think that is the reason for the profiling,” Chebukati said.
“As a chairperson of the commission, I’ve never sat with an individual to discuss procurement. It is very unfortunate that some leaders can stand so low to try at this point in time to malign the character of the chair,” he said.
Mr Chebukati has also asked politicians to avoid profiling the commissioners during their political campaigns.
At the same time, the IEBC boss said commission will engage with the stakeholders in the next meeting regarding the appropriate voter register.
Chebukati’s reactions come as the Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya Coalition presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, continues to poke holes in the commission’s preparedness for the August 9 General Election.
Mr Odinga has already written to the commission to protest the use of electronic register, which he says is prone to failure. But the commission has insisted that the biometric will be the primary register to be used and that there will be a manual register at the polling station to be used as a complementary system in case the biometric register fails.
The commission has also said both registers will have the same data and that politicians should stop misleading Kenyans that the two are different.