Former Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) chairperson Charles Nyachae yesterday fought off claims that he was a State candidate who only applied for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chair to advance President William Ruto’s interests.

Appearing before the IEBC selection panel, chaired by Dr Nelson Makanda, Nyachae put up a spirited effort to trash a memorandum challenging his suitability that had been forwarded to the panel by a private citizen and Bunge La Mwananchi.

In the efforts, Nyachae claimed that the allegations levelled against him were baseless as he had applied for the position of his own will and without undue influence from any quarters.

“I consider the entire memorandum as being motivated by ill will for reasons that I don’t know and not being supported by the truth. Me (as) a State candidate for this job? No. I am not sure what a State candidate is. I made this decision to run on my own. When someone says a State candidate, they are insulting this panel because it is the one that will come with the final list. The idea of a State candidate is foreign to me,” he told the panel.

Personal affairs

Nyachae, who was the third candidate to face the panel, was also forced to set the record straight on a number of other allegations levelled against him.

The others who were interviewed include former Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court Ann Amadi and Chief Magistrate Abdulqadir Loro and Edward Katama Ngeywa.

Part of the allegations against Nyachae includes claims of extra-marital affairs and lack of child support, financial misappropriation linked to Proctor and Allan’s company amounting to Sh3.5billion, casting doubt about his financial capacity, lack of public trust when he chaired CIC as well as conflict of interests.

In his response, on personal integrity and morals, he dismissed the claims as mere allegations while with regards to the scandal surrounding Proctor and Allan, he clarified that he had nothing to do with the management of the firm and his only link is that he owns shares in a company that is associated with it.

With regards to his tenure at CIC where he is being accused of failing to perform, Nyachae dismissed the same as scandalous only aimed at tarnishing his image. He denied his appointment to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) was due to political patronage, saying the processes of appointing judges to sit in the court is clear.

“On CIC, it’s insulting, that we did nothing and achieved nothing, the work CIC did is self-evident. This is just an allegation, like all the others, meant to scandalise me,” he charged

With regards to misappropriation of funds as alleged by Bunge la Mwananchi that in 2015, the commission fraudulently paid Sh9.2 million for the supply of newspapers, a matter that is subject to criminal investigations, he dismissed the allegations saying this is not true as he was not even the accounting officer.

Apart from the memorandum, Nyachae was also forced to fight claims that he would resign prematurely just like he did when he served as a judge in the EACJ.

“You resigned from a judicial position that does not have similar pressure as this. Are we going to have our chair resign before the end of the day?” the panel’s chair Makanda had asked.

Nyachae explained that this would not happen because he does not anticipate the problems he faced while at the EACJ, which mainly touched on lack of budget, would recur. He set the record straight that his decision to resign was because he wanted to be fair to the people of the East African Community as he was earning a salary without working.

“As each session was approached, it was cancelled because of financial issues. When this happened practically in the whole of 2023, I said to myself, I am not being fair to the people of East Africa since all this time, every month, I earned US$2,000 (Sh280 000) for doing nothing,” he explained.

Way forward

With regards to restoring the image of the IEBC, Nyachae blamed power play and vested interests for the problems that occurred before the 2022 election.

“The biggest problem is what is perceived. The dynamics of the political power play that has become central to this problem. The basic framework is the law to be followed to the latter,” he argued.

On the legacy, he would want to leave behind, he said that his major interest would be to ensure that he restores trust in the electoral agency adding that he would also ensure that the elections are verifiable.

“Given the history of this IEBC, what I would want, with a good team of commissioners, is to ensure that I leave behind a legacy where we would be able to reverse the situation of trust, which has been the biggest challenge,” he said., adding that what remains to be done has little to do with elections being verifiable but with ordinary Kenyans remaining persuaded that it is verifiable and where the electoral body is beyond suspicion.

“As long as the commission leaves questions marks on Kenyans, then it will have fallen short of expectations,” he added.

The interviews continue today with Erastus Edung Ethekon, Francis Kakai Kissinger, Jacob Ngwele Muvengei, and Joy Brenda Masinde-Mdivo expected to face the panel while tomorrow (Wednesday), Lilian Wanjiku Manegene, Robert Akumu Asembo, and Saul Simiyu Wasilwa will be grilled.

A total of 37 candidates expressed interest in the IEBC chairperson before the list was narrowed down to 11.