Sidelined Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) officials have refused to leave office, despite chairperson Wafula Chebukati naming a new team to conduct the October 17th repeat presidential election.
IEBC Commissioner Roselyn Akombe said that that electoral officials who mishandled the August 8th presidential election have declined to hand in resignation letters and vacate office.
Speaking to the Bloomberg, Commissioner Akombe noted that the officials were asked to relinquish their posts, but declined. Chairman Wafula Chebukati, however, went ahead to unveil a new team.
“In a normal democracy, people would have introspected, they would have opted to step aside, they have failed to do that. They have refused.
“In a situation where they have refused to step aside, the chairman has no choice but to select a team that he has confidence in, that he wants to work with.This is to make sure that those things are not repeated. It’s rare to get a second chance to make it right,” she stated.
She did not, however, name the officials who had refused to resign.
Sources within the electoral body indicate that the move by Chebukati to name a new team has ruffled some commissioners, which has split the body into two.
Four out of the seven IEBC commissioners are said to have stormed out of a meeting chaired by Chebukati in protest of the new six member team named on Monday.
The four claimed that Chebukati acted alone and failed to consult them while selecting the team.
“We were shocked because at no one point did we discuss or agree to effect changes in our secretariat. We have asked for an urgent meeting to discuss this matter because the commission is run by the commissioners, not an individual.
“Secondly, some of us are of the view that the chairman assumed and purported to exercise powers he doesn’t have,” one protesting commissioner told journalists.
The four said that IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba is the one mandated to carry out such changes in the commission and accused some of the senior officials of having been compromised by politicians.
“Assignment of duties to staff and implementation of commission decisions is the work of the commission secretary (Chiloba), who is also the accounting officer.
“We have also reliably learned that some of us met some senior political players in this election on Monday evening. We have to be sure that some decisions such as these were not the product of such meetings as alleged,” one of the commissioners noted.
