• The lawyer also said in a bid to ensure he made unilaterally the outcome of the elections, Chebukati assigned the other commissioners different roles.
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Lawyer Paul Nyamodi has told the Supreme court that IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati planned from the onset to single-handedly run the August 9, general elections.
In his submissions on Wednesday, Nyamodi told the court that Chebukati gazetted himself as the national returning officer and assumed the roles of the 290 constituency returning officers who are mandated to conduct elections.
"There is no position like the national returning officer. He gazetted himself as the national returning officer. As a matter of good electoral practice, returning officers are gazetted with their deputies, the chairman gazetted himself with no deputy," Nyamodi said.
"It was his election to run as he saw fit," he added.
Nyamodi further said Chebukati infringed on the Constitution by failing to publish the notices on the appointment of the 290 constituency returning officers.
"The conduct of elections by dint of Article 138 (2) is by 290 returning officers. The notices that they were required to publish for 290 returning officers were never published," Nyamodi said.
According to Nyamodi, failure to publish the notices was a ploy for the IEBC boss to usurp the roles of the 290 constituency returning officers who are mandated to conduct elections.
"A returning officer is defined in section 2 of the Elections Act as a person who conducts the elections. The chairman is to merely declare the results," Nyamodi said.
The lawyer also said Chebukati deployed the other commissioners to different roles at the Bomas of Kenya to ensure they did not fully get involved in the electoral process.
He said in an internal memo dated July 22 and signed by Chebukati, vice chairperson Juliana Cherera and commissioner Boya Molu were appointed as team leaders in charge of the media and call centre management team at Bomas.
He said Francis Wanderi and Irene Masit were assigned roles at the Logistics Welfare and Security team at the presidential tallying centre at Bomas to oversight and provide policy direction.
Commissioner Justus Nyangaya was put in charge of dignitaries and protocol at Bomas.
Nyamodi said Abdi Guliye and the CEO Marjan Hussein were appointed to the result management team.