Chebukati part of AU Observer Mission in Rwanda

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati with head of AU Observer Mission Aichatou Mindaodou in Rwanda for election observation. /COURTESY
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati with head of AU Observer Mission Aichatou Mindaodou in Rwanda for election observation. /COURTESY

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati is on observer mission to Rwanda's Parliamentary elections under the auspices of the African Union.

The commission on its twitter on Tuesday said the mission is important with key benchmarks including the cost of elections and Diaspora voting.

The commission said Chebukati was in Rwanda as a member of the AU Observer Mission.

Rwanda's Parliamentary elections were held on September 3, 2018. Its citizens in the diaspora voted on September 2.

An estimated 7.1 million voters participated in the election.

Chebukati's tenure at the IEBC came under test during the two presidential elections held last year. The polls were disputed.

The Supreme Court judges nullified results of the August 8, 2017 vote. The repeat October 26 vote was also challenged.

The judges had claimed that the IEBC did not conform to election guidelines as per the Elections Act.

The nullification came despite the fact that AU had given the commission a clean bill of health saying the poll was fair and transparent.

Read:

However, AU declined to endorse the October 26 poll despite indicating that there was smooth polling and tallying of results.

The observers said the issues will be addressed in the AU's Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.

Read:

Chebukati's visit to Rwanda has, however, not gone well with some Kenyans who laughed him off.

Most of the commentators said it is such an irony that after presiding over two bungled elections.

@MatoyoTitus said: "Kenya is a funny country. Now chebukati after bungling Kenyan election is in another country to "observe" or bungle for others too".

@Jumajoab, in his response, said with or without benchmarks elections in Kenya is just but corrupt wagon to hells gate.

"Rwanda has less than 13m people n the voters less than 5m. What cost are we talking about? Ingekuwa UG ama TZ sawa. The money they stole in iebc is enough to rub two elections in Rwanda," @JoeOchieng1 said.

Others joked that Rwanda should keep the chairman as long as the want citing grounds that he and the entire IEBC cannot be trusted to conduct any election.


WATCH: The latest videos from the Star