Mudavadi, Ruto team condemn state over election law

ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi has said that changing elections law six months to the date of the elections is tantamount to pushing for chaos.

Addressing Kajiado residents on Thursday, Mudavadi warned the government against introducing new election laws a few days before the elections.

“The government must stop the habit of changing the rules of the game at the eleventh hour,” Mudavadi said, adding that such a move is meant to prepare the ground for electoral malpractice.

The proposed amendments seek to pave way for both manual and electronic transmission of presidential results in the August 9, general election.

“This is a bad law and please do not change the law at the last minute in favour of the project. The move will only affect the elections and its credibility,” Mudavadi said.

The proposed law says any failure to transmit the results electronically would not be grounds for the Supreme Court to nullify the presidential vote.

The Bill also seeks to do away with the live transmission of results.

The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022 that was introduced in the House by Majority Leader Amos Kimunya also provides for a complementary mechanism for voter identification.

This means that IEBC officials would be allowed to use manual registers where Kiems kits fail.

Among the provisions is that returning officers managing the election would have to travel to Nairobi with the results after transmitting the same electronically.

Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetangula, UDA MPs Kipchumba Murkomen, Kimani Ichungwa, Rigathi Gachagua, Kithure Kindiki, and other leaders took a swipe at the Azimio la Umoja Coalition, terming it a State House project that is meant to propel ODM leader Rails Odinga to the presidency.

Wetangula said that Raila is a project of the State and asked the public to vote in the ‘hustler’ bandwagon in the first round so as to save the bleeding economy from a run-up election.

Murkomen termed the Bill as one that is meant to stifle the media and gag it in covering the media.

“By gagging the media, what the Government is trying to do is to lay the ground for electoral malpractice. We ask President Uhuru not to interfere with the elections. We will not allow the country to go the 2007/08 way,” Murkomen said.

Ichungwa said together with his colleagues in Parliament will pass the supplementary budget and ensure the electoral agency is well funded so that it is able to carry out credible elections.

Former Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama urged the Maa community to join the hustle bandwagon and not accept to be divided along tribal lines.

Wetangula added that the Kenya Kwanza administration will provide affordable education from nursery to secondary with the poor getting free education.

He said Raila cannot be trusted with the leadership of the country citing their frosty relations caused by the mistrust portrayed by the ODM leader.

Kindiki said media should be allowed its freedom to work without restrictions including setting up its own tallying centres.

“We want the media to be allowed to work freely and to even relay election results without any restrictions,” Kindiki said.

Deputy President William Ruto. who is said to be outside the country had said through his Twitter account that the changes paves way for both manual and electronic transmission of presidential results in the August 9 elections.

"The plan is evil and must fail. The people have resoundingly said HATUPANGWINGWI.," Ruto said.

"The desperate efforts to install project kitendawili by forceful, illegal, undemocratic and unconstitutional means portends a troubling future for Kenya, its democracy, the rule of law, freedom of its citizens and, ultimately, everyone's well-being."