IEBC clears Oscar Sudi to defend Kapseret MP seat

Kapseret Member of Parliament Oscar Sudi has been cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to defend his seat in the August General Election.

Sudi, who is accused of forging his academic documents, received his clearance certificate on Monday, May 30.

Kapseret constituency Returning Officer Mildred Wachie said the MP had presented all the required documents through a representative.

The legislator had written to IEBC saying he is out of the country.

“He was not here in person. He wrote a letter signed by his lawyer that he is outside the country. And according to the law, you can send a representative,” Wachie said.

“We checked all his documents according to the law, verified and confirmed that they are correct before we cleared him. Accordingly, he is now a candidate and he can start to campaign.”

Sudi was among 25 politicians who were ‘red carded’ by the National Integrity Alliance (NIA) last week over integrity issues.

NIA, through the Red Card Campaign 2022, sought to have the politicians linked to graft and other criminal activities, locked out of the August 9 polls.

The lobby group called on electoral vetting institutions to exercise their mandate and bar all corrupt and unethical aspirants from vying in the elections.

Sudi is accused of having forged his Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Education (KCSE) and college certificates. The case is pending in court.

In October last year, the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) principal examination secretary Nabiki Ene Kashu told anti-corruption court magistrate Felix Kombo that the MP’s certificate is fake.

“We went through the KNEC archive records and established that Oscar Kipchumba Sudi did not appear in the year 2006 KNEC data base for either Parklands Secondary School or Highway Secondary,” Nabiki told the court.

While testifying in court, Nabiki confirmed to the trial court that the index number 401006/081 of year 2006 in Sudi’s KCSE certificate did not belong to Highway Secondary school but to Parklands Secondary School.

Last week, Patrick Maritim, the former Principal of Highway Secondary School, told the trial magistrate that the MP did not sit his KCSE exams at the school in 2006.

“Sudi did not register nor sit for the 2006 KCSE examination. His name did not appear anywhere in the school’s register at the time when l was the principal at Highway Secondary School,” Maritim stated.