Political lieutenants of President William Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga on Wednesday return to Bomas of Kenya for joint talks exactly a year after last year's polls.
Bomas of Kenya was the nerve centre for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission but witnessed chaotic scenes ahead of the declaration of the presidential results.
Today last year, Kenyans went to the ballot to elect their President in what many observers said was the country's most peaceful and efficient elections in history.
However, the dramatic scenes that rocked the venue for the declaration of presidential elections put the country on the edge following a standoff among IEBC commissioners.
Before retired IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati declared President William Ruto the winner of the contest on August 15, there was total pandemonium at the auditorium and within Bomas.
Ruto was declared the winner by IEBC after garnering 7,176,141 (50.49%), votes against Raila's 6,942,930 (48.85%) amid tight security after days of chaos.
On the day Chebukati was to announce the results, tension was high in the auditorium as Azimio allied MPs attempted to block him from announcing the presidential election outcome.
Following the disruption, police had to whisk away Chebukati before order was restored.
Azimio leaders claimed Raila had been rigged out and that the final results of the presidential election could not be verified.
Chairs were thrown and punches nearly exchanged as both sides of the political divide fought to gain control of the main dais where the results were to be announced.
Police intervened and restored normalcy before Chebukati declared the results after a major split in the commission.
He was backed by Abadi Guliye and Boya Molu and the Chief Executive Officer, Hussein Marjan.
"It's not been an easy journey, right now two of my commissioners and the CEO are injured and they are being treated," Chebukati said before announcing the results.
Moments before that, four commissioners, three of whom resigned and one ejected, disowned the results saying they were opaque.
Former vice chair Juliana Cherera, and commissioners Justus Nyang'aya, Francis Wanderi and Irene Masit addressed the media at Serena Hotel saying Chebukati was acting alone.
On August 13, just as the validation of the results was ongoing, Raila's then-chief agent Saitabao Ole Kanchory claimed that Bomas was a crime scene.
This was after chaotic scenes rocked the auditorium, halting the verification exercise of the presidential votes.
"I want to tell Kenyans that Bomas is a scene of the crime," he declared.
Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina, who was among the Azimio leaders ejected from Bomas before the results were declared, denied he caused trouble at Bomas but noted that he had learnt his lessons.
He claimed that he missed out on the presidential state commendation on Jamhuri Day last year because of the chaos at Bomas which he denied any involvement.
He claimed members of the Kenya Kwanza camp in the joint secretariat on conferment of honours "engineered" his removal from the list of nominees.
"I never knew that people can be very petty. Everybody saw what happened. I never caused any violence at Bomas," Ledama said during a TV interview.
