•They matched to the IEBC Mombasa offices where they presented the petition, addressed to chair Chebukati.
•It was received by acting county elections manager Alphonce Tsuwi.
Image: BRIAN OTIENO
Twelve Mombasa residents have threatened to take the electoral body to court should they fail to remove their names from voters' register.
The group last Wednesday petitioned the IEBC to expunge their names from the register saying they have no faith in the electoral agency.
Otieno Ombok on Sunday said they have given IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati 14 days to respond to the petition they have tabled before his team, failure to which they will move to court.
“Our petition is within the law and the law says IEBC must respond within two weeks,” Ombok said.
They matched to the IEBC Mombasa offices where they presented the petition, addressed to chair Chebukati.
It was received by acting county elections manager Alphonce Tsuwi.
Ombok said he has consulted several constitutional experts and is confident their request will be granted.
“If they fail to act on our petition, we will move to court,” Ombok said on phone.
They said the perennial failure by the electoral agency to ensure elections are free, fair, transparent and accountable to the citizens has reduced the voting exercise to a ritual whose futility is self-evident.
“We have lost all confidence in your ability as an independent commission to execute your mandate and the sacred duty of ensuring the sanctity of every vote and to make it count,” the petitioners told Chebukati.
Ombok, 54, a social consultant, has been voting since he was a student at the university in 1988.
“We have been seeing changes in the voting systems but not the change Kenyans want. All elections have been shambolic,” Ombok said.
“In the mlolongo system, the shorter queue won the elections. How? There have been displacements and deaths every elections period. This is not what Kenyans want.”
He said the system has been so corrupt, there is no longer fear while rigging elections.
“We have seen senior IEBC staff killed, the agency disobeying court orders to open servers, and many other incidences that make me feel voting has no meaning to me,” Ombok said.
“Another group went to Nairobi on the same matter and they were told they could not have their names expunged unless they are dead.”
He said if there is such a law, then it should be changed because it makes no sense.
Peter Katana, 55, an insurance agent, said he has been voting since the 1988 mlolongo elections and has never fully felt his vote counted.
“I have decided to have my name expunged from the because I do not see a just election being conducted,” Katana said.
He said most Kenyans have and continue to be disgruntled about the elections conducted in the country over the last five decades.
The 12 said except for the 2002 elections, all other elections have not been as free, fair and credible as should be.
Emily Achieng, a 30-year-old, said this will be her third election that she is eligible to participate in.
The Nyali voter said the past two elections, 2013 and 2017, which she participated in only disappointed her.
“As the youth, we are always told to register and vote. But nobody wants us to take stock of what that vote means to us. It makes no sense to just vote as a ritual with no change,” Achieng said.
Others who wanted their names expunged from the roll include Grace Oloo, Tirus Makumi, Felix Obiero, Dreda Odiwuor, Nancy Atieno, Kiti Nyale, Bessie Sarowiwa, Helidah Akoth, Flugence Onyango and Okumu Bernard.
An IEBC official in Mombasa, who spoke on anonymity, said this is a unique petition they have not experienced before.
“There are no laws that specifically touch on that. So we don’t know how the chair will handle this,” the IEBC official said.
Constitutional expert Bobby Mkangi said there are no regulations regarding expunging of names from the voters roll at the IEBC but it should be possible.
“I assume their fear is, if their names remain in the roll and they do not vote, they will be made to have voted without them voting. Because the other option is just not to vote,” Mkangi said on phone.
He said Kenya, unlike Australia, where, by law, one must vote, one is free to vote or not.
“Even if there is no particular regulation around that, I think if somebody goes and petitions the IEBC that way, I don’t see what IEBC will be losing from. They can just strike off your name,” Mkangi said.
He however said IEBC will probably seek to verify the ones seeking to be expunged from the voters roll are the same ones who will be expunged by getting confirmation like affidavits.
“I don’t see any specific prohibition especially if you do it correctly. I don’t think it should be a headache,” Mkangi said.
The constitutional lawyer said this will however raise pertinent matters that will make MPs consider having regulations around wilfully expunging names from the voters roll.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
Image: BRIAN OTIENO