Former polls agency chairperson Wafula Chebukati on Tuesday said that Raphael Tuju offered to reward him if he changed elections results to favour Azimio leader Raila Odinga.
Chebukati was testifying before the Aggrey Muchelule-led tribunal formed by President William Ruto to investigate the conduct of the 'Cherera Four'.
“For this, he indicated that should his request be granted it would be adequately rewarded. We did not encourage him to expound what the reward was,” he said.
The outgoing IEBC chairperson said as regards the incentive he was categorical that he was adequately remunerated and did not want anything from anyone, adding that commissioners Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu supported his sentiments.
He told lead counsel Peter Munge that the reward was in monetary form and four commissioners (Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Justus Nyang'aya and Irene Masit) did not comment on the reward offer made by Tuju.
Chebukati also said that Tuju said they should moderate the results in favour of the Azimio presidential candidate and any contrary declaration of results would plunge the country into chaos
He said Tuju added that if it was not possible to moderate, then they should ensure there was a run-off but he didn’t say how they should do that.
“If these gentlemen knew the transparency we had put in the system, they would have visited. Results were already out there in the system [and] any attempt to change [them] would result into a lot of other problems,” the former electoral commission chairperson said.
He told the tribunal that the former Rarieda MP was accompanied to the holding room by former Busia Senator Amos Wako and lawyer Kyalo Mbobu.
However, Chebukati said that lawyer Mbobu did not say anything, adding that the people who spoke were Tuju and Wako.
The former chairperson said on that morning of August 15 when he was to declare the presidential results, the three gentlemen "ambushed" him in the holding room where he had gone to take a nap.
"I was in the holding room at the Bomas of Kenya, I had told my CEO that I'd like to take an hour nap then I was woken up by these gentlemen," he said.
Chebukati said the first to speak was Wako who said he managed the elections when he was the Attorney General.
“Wako said we should not operate in a vacuum and we should look for a bigger picture for the country. He said as a former supervisor of elections when you reach this kind of situation you can moderate results and achieve stability of the country,” the tribunal heard.
The former IEBC chairperson said that the four commissioners, including Irene Masit, allegedly pushed for moderation of results since the margin between the two candidates was small.
He said Masit pushed for a rerun and the commissioner wanted them to move the 233,000 votes so that we have a rerun.
“Cherera suggested that we should make the ballot rejected ballots,” Chebukati said, adding that it appeared that the four had a pre-arranged consensus to alter the results.
He also said they had worked well as team all through the voting, verification and tallying process with all the commissioners and he even assigned them roles at Bomas.
However, he had assigned Masit and Wanderi to head the Security and Welfare section, but Masit told him she couldn’t work with Wanderi and Wanderi also said he could work with her.
So Chebukati divided the roles and gave Security section to Wanderi and Welfare to Masit.
In cross-examination, lawyer Donald Kipkorir who is representing Masit questioned the outgoing IEBC chairperson on why he gazetted himself as a returning officer without a deputy.
“What if you had an accident or something happened to you on that day, who would have announced the results?” Kipkorir said.
“I am here, I gazetted myself as the returning officer in compliance with the law,” Chebukati said.
The hearing will resume on February 9 when Munge and Kipkorir are expected to make their final submissions before the tribunal retires to write a ruling.
Masit, through Kipkorir, said she will not call any witnesses to defend herself in the matter.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
