- The MPs said IEBC staffers took a trip to the US to observe mid-term elections, an entourage included a kitchen attendant and CEO's personal assistant.
- They also demanded that an independent audit be undertaken to establish expenditures incurred, particularly after the conclusion of the 2022 polls.
Image: FILE
Azimio la Umoja MPs have turned the heat on the 'IEBC three' led by chairman Wafula Chebukati and commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye, asking that they proceed on terminal leave immediately.
The lawmakers, led by Minority leader Opiyo Wandayi, said it could not be obtaining that the three have continued to transact business on behalf of the electoral agency yet their posts have been declared vacant.
Further, the Azimio team wants a special committee of Parliament formed to inquire into the conduct of Chebukati and the two commissioners to determine the full extent to which they may have misused public resources in their sunset days in office.
The MPs said at the Parliament Buildings the three have continued to spend tens of millions of shillings of taxpayer’s money in what they termed as a “scheme to reward those who ensured the elections of August 2022 went in a predetermined way.”
They said the IEBC chairman, CEO Hussein Marjan, select directors and select staffers have been globetrotting for the past two months “on trips whose value to taxpayers remains unknown.”
“Between the months of September and November alone, millions of shillings have been gobbled up by select group within the IEBC,” the MPs said in a statement.
They cited a trip by director of voter registration and three senior officers to the UK, while the CEO and chairman have made trips to South Africa, Malaysia, Dubai, the US and Angola.
MPs also pointed out a trip by eight staff members to Esami, Dubai, for a week-long course on public policy, adding that the expense was unnecessary as there is a similar school in Arusha, Tanzania.
The lawmakers said the commission staffers took a trip to the US to observe mid-term elections, an entourage that they said included a kitchen attendant and the CEO's personal assistant.
Several staffers, they said, have been making trips to Kampala and Arusha to undertake training on IT and procurement. They cited a case of officers who proceeded from the regional capitals to a week-long stay in Dubai.
“The value of their travels in the dying days of their tenure remains unknown. Several directors, including those for finance, legal affairs, ICT, deputy CEO support services have had long stays in Dubai for training for God knows what,” the leaders said.
“The foreign trips that are awarded selectively are running alongside selective and illegal promotions, again favouring those who ensured that elections went a particular direction.”
The lawmakers protested the decision of the electoral commission to involve Greek firm Lykos Inform in the printing of ballot papers for the by-elections slated for December 8 and January 5 against its own policy that ballot papers for such elections are printed locally.
“The decision was made unilaterally. The matter was not discussed at the plenary by the commissioners,” the MPs said.
Azimio wants the three electoral agency chiefs to proceed on terminal leave ahead of their retirement and also begin the process of handing over their officers in line with the IEBC laws.
“All decisions that have been made without the participation of the plenary be rescinded, including the printing of ballot papers for by-elections and the illegal promotions,” they said.
The MPs also demanded that an independent audit be undertaken to establish expenditures incurred, particularly after the conclusion of the 2022 general election, “and action taken where crime has been committed.”
Azimio also wants the electoral commission to produce the framework contract between it and the Greek printing firm, including the duration of the contract, the individual, corporate and country contractual obligations and the liability costs in case of any breach.
(edited by Amol Awuor)