He wouldn't bend and said he left with his head held high.
The few generous accolades came from President William Ruto.
So it's understandable Kenyans could be shying away from seeking to replace Chebukati as the new electoral commission chairman — a lucrative but some might say 'jinxed' job. Men of honour have exited in dispute.
The Star has established that by Wednesday, March 15, only two people had applied to replace Chebukati as the new chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairperson.
By contrast, 142 people had applied for the six vacant positions of IEBC commissioners.
The jobs were advertised on March 7.
For the last 20 years, nearly all electoral commission chairpersons have left office under a cloud of controversy, making the job one of the riskiest in Kenya. Losers complain and charge all manner of political malpractice.
The vacancies will close on March 28, giving a window for many Kenyans to apply.
On Wednesday, the electoral agency selection panel asked Kenyans to apply for the jobs, "those who are willing to sacrifice to respond".
However, an initial press statement that had broken down the number of applicants and the positions sought was not read out to the media.
“I want to take this opportunity to ask and encourage eligible Kenyans to continue applying for the vacant positions of the IEBC chairperson and the six members,” selection chairman Nelson Makanda told the press.
The commission has in the past become a career-killer, with most of the occupants either hounded out of office prematurely or ending their tenure in disgrace.
The new recruitment follows the retirement of Chebukati and two other commissioners — Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye — the trio who declared Ruto as President as four others dissented.
Ruto has said there was a plot to abduct and murder the IEBC chairman before declaration of the 2022 presidential polls.
Four of the commissioners — Juliana Cherera, Justus Nyang’aya, Francis Wanderi and Irine Masit — opposed Ruto's win. They said they were excluded from key aspects of the process an rejected Ruto.
"There was a direct attempt to abduct and murder Chebukati so that the commission would be paralysed or a compliant commissioner takes over and subverts the people's sovereignty. It was a hard, cold, lonely time, the threats were dire,” Ruto said, recalling moments before the declarations of results.
Guliye and Molu said they had to hide after the declaration of results.
But while Ruto has described Chebukati as a hero, Raila has run a consistent narrative of how the IEBC chairperson and his team stole his election, saying the former chairman should be jailed.
Cherera, Nyang'aya, Wanderi and Masit were forced to resigned a year in office after Parliament recommended formation of a tribunal to investigate their conduct.
Masit, who opted to stay put, was kicked out after the tribunal found her guilty of gross misconduct.
The trouble at the electoral agency started with the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya then led by Samuel Kivuitu.
ECK was disbanded after the bloodbath that followed the disputed 2007 presidential election.
Kivuitu died in 2013.
After the ECK came the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, which was set up on May 7, 2009, with Issack Hassan as the chairman.
Hassan led IIEC's transition into IEBC and, with it, more complaints about poorly managed elections.
Hassan oversaw the 2013 polls that Opposition chief Raila said was rigged in favour of then President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The commissioners included Lilian Mahiri-Zaja (vice chairperson), Yusuf Nzibo, Albert Bwire, Kule Galma Godana, Abdullahi Sharawe, Mohamed Alawi Hussun, Muthoni Wangai and Thomas Letangule.
In this team was James Oswago who served as CEO. He was later arrested and charged in several graft cases, including the infamous Chickengate scandal.
While the commissioners were never charged, the team was to also leave office prematurely following violent opposition protests that the team could not oversee the 2017 polls.
Hassan's team agreed to quit after after protracted negotiations that saw them get hefty sendoff packages.
At the time, Ezra Chiloba had taken over as the CEO.
Chebukati's team came in 2016, steering the commission through the last election, despite a critical number of his commissioners quitting along the way.
First to resign was Roselyne Akombe who fled the country a week to the repeat elections in October 2017.
Akombe who had repeatedly alleged unrelenting threats to her life and declared the electoral agency incapable of conducting free and fair polls.
“The commission in its current state can surely not guarantee a credible election on 26 October 2017,” she said. “I do not want to be party to such a mockery to electoral integrity.”
Months later, Chebukati’s vicechairperson Connie Nkatha Maina, commissioners Margaret Mwachanya and Paul Kurgat also resigned, accusing Chebukati of failing the leadership test.
Chebukati and his team had initially kicked out Chiloba whom they accused of a financial mess in the commission.
(Edited by V. Graham)
