IEBC Vice Chair Cherera Accuses Chebukati of Secretly Printing a Second Set of Forms 34A

IEBC Vice Chairperson Juliana Cherera has filed an affidavit at the Supreme Court supporting Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s petition challenging president-elect William Ruto’s victory.

In her affidavit, Cherera accuses IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati of acting unilaterally while subverting the constitution and election laws.

Cherera, who is among the four commissioners who disowned the results where Ruto was declared the winner, alleges that Chebukati secretly printed a second set of the presidential results transmission forms (34A) without involving other members.

She indicated that when she traveled to Greece on July 21st in the company of her colleague Francis Wanderi to inspect ballot printing by Lykos (Hellas) SA, they discovered that Chebukati had instructed the company to print two sets of forms 34A. Cherera says various political parties protested the discovery of the second set of documents.

She further accuses Chebukati of rejecting her appeal alongside commissioners Justus Nyang’aya, Francis Wanderi, and Irene Masit to verify the final presidential results before the official announcement on August 15th.

She claims that Chebukati, through an IEBC Whatsapp group, summoned her and other commissioners for a meeting at one of the boardrooms at the Bomas of Kenya.

“At 4:30pm, the chairperson proceeded to issue the Commissioners with a document containing what he termed as a summary of the presidential election results which he alleged he had tallied and verified from the backend of the server,” says Cherera in the affidavit.

“The chairperson did not indicate how the errors and concerns raised by the Representatives of the Presidential Candidates and political parties were dealt with.”

Cherera says the chairperson then walked out of the meeting leaving behind the commissioners and proceeded to the auditorium of the National Tallying Centre at Bomas of Kenya.

“Together with Wanderi, Nyangaya and Masit, I left the meeting room after the Chairperson walked out of the meeting room after disregarding the issues raised by the Commissioners,” she adds.

Cherera says it is for these reasons that the four IEBC commissioners including herself distanced themselves from Chebukati’s declaration of Ruto as president-elect.