Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Former Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati yesterday called for the creation of Commission of Inquiry into the violent incidents that were witnessed at the Bomas of Kenya on August 15, 2022, the day he announced the winner of last year’s presidential election.

According to him and two other former commissioners, such an inquiry would unearth the motive behind the acts of violence that some of electoral commission staff suffered during the election period.

“The inquiry should uncover the reasons why some of the commission’s staff were abducted, tortured, or even killed during the election period, identify persons responsible for those atrocities and thereafter appropriate punishment should be meted out,” the three said in a letter they co-signed and posted on Chebakati’s X social media handle.

Chebukati, Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu had been expected to appear before the National Dialogue Committee, which is holding talks at the Bomas of Kenya, to shed light on any or all of the five agenda issues that the team is discussing.

One of the issues is electoral justice. However, they boycotted the session and instead used social media to announce that they would not be honouring the Bomas team’s invitation.

“We have gone through the five thematic areas and would like to inform you that we do not wish to make any submissions before the committee,” they told the team co-chaired by Leader of Majority in the National Assembly, Kimani Ichung’wah and Wiper Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka.

Ichung’wah is leading representatives of the ruling Kenya Kwanza Alliance while Kalonzo is leading their counterparts from the Azimio la Umoja Coalition.

According to Chebukati, to participate in the talks would amount to betraying IEBC staff “who were tortured & murdered & a reward for impunity”.

Successful tenure

Instead, he, Molu and Guliye proposed that a Commission of Inquiry be formed. They said that what happened at Bomas brought the image of the country into disrepute and should be investigated.
“The outcome of such an inquiry will bolster the independence of the commission (IEBC) and ensure that it maintains the stature contemplated in the Constitution,” they said in their joint letter to the Bomas team.

They described their tenure in office — during which they served for six years — as successful and maintained that they delivered on their mandate, including the 2022 General Election, with all elected leaders now occupying their respective offices.

“Some of them (elected leaders) are now members of this committee. The discharge of our constitutional and legal mandate is self-evincing,” they said.

Their submissions were expected to assist the Bomas team to make recommendations about how to restructure and reconstitute IEBC and how to conduct boundaries review.

They would also have been expected to review the conduct the 2022 presidential election, whose results the Azimio candidate, Raila Odinga, challenged in the Supreme Court but lost.

Had they presented themselves at Bomas, this would have been their first public engagement since leaving office on January 17.

During his tenure, Chebukati oversaw three presidential elections, including the 2017 repeat election, which was conducted after the Supreme Court annulled the initial election of President Uhuru Kenyatta after Raila petitioned to challenge Uhuru’s victory. Raila boycotted the repeat poll.

Chebukati made national history as the only electoral chairman to serve a full term under the new Constitution despite the results of all three presidential elections he oversaw being challenged at the Supreme Court. One was annulled. Two were upheld.