Former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka has accused TNA of deleting Ms
Kethi Kilonzo’s name from the voters’ register, locking her out of the
Makueni by-election.
“TNA is IEBC and IEBC is TNA. TNA must have tampered with the voter
register, hence deleting Kethi’s name,” Mr Musyoka told a press
conference in Nairobi on Tuesday.
Ms Kilonzo had been cleared by the Wiper Democratic Party, which Mr
Musyoka leads, to vie for the Makueni senatorial seat left vacant by the
death of her father, Mutula Kilonzo.
Wiper Democratic Party is allied to Cord which lost the March 4
General Election to the Jubilee Alliance. The alliance comprises The
National Alliance (TNA) and the United Republican Party (URP). TNA is
led by President Uhuru Kenyatta while URP is led by Deputy President
William Ruto.
Mr Musyoka said TNA was working with the Independent Electoral and
Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to lock out Ms Kilonzo from the senatorial
race slated for July 22.
“Of concern is the manner in which TNA, a major player in the Jubilee
Coalition, raised the issue of Kethi’s voter registration status
without the knowledge of the electoral body, begging the question of who
is the custodian of the IEBC vote register,” he said.
However, TNA secretary general Onyango Oloo denied the claims and told Cord to carry its own cross.
“No scape-goat, no blame game will clean Wiper and Cord’s act of
trying to hoodwink Kenyans that its candidate presented a legal document
for clearance to vie for the seat,” Mr Oloo said in a telephone
interview.
He said TNA has no business interfering with the will of Kenyans.
Even as Cord was protesting, IEBC on Tuesday gazetted the names of the four candidates who will contest in the by-election.
They are former MP Philip Kaloki (Narc), Mr Urbanus Katumo Muthoka
(an independent candidate), Jane Wavinya Muoka (Labour Party of Kenya)
and Mr John Harun Mwau (Pick).
Commission chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan also gazetted 125 polling centres in Makueni County ahead of the by-election.
Mr Hassan’s notice is dated July 8, the same day the IEBC tribunal ruled on Ms Kilonzo’s eligibility case.
On Tuesday, Mr Musyoka said Cord would go to court to challenge the
ruling of the IEBC tribunal which disqualified Ms Kilonzo from vying
after the slip she used to get her nomination was judged to have been
stolen.
“This is a major political war against Cord, disguised as a legal battle,” Mr Musyoka said.
One of the lawyers representing Wiper, Mr Daniel Maanzo, said Cord
would go to the high court on Wednesday to seek to nullify the gazette
notice detailing the candidates.
“I think they rushed to gazette the names to block us from appealing.
However, we will seek prayers to nullify the gazettement,” Mr Maanzo
said. “It appears IEBC, the courts and the executive are working
together but let’s hear what the courts will say.”
Meanwhile, IEBC has written to the Directorate of Criminal
Investigations to investigate the loss of the voter registration slip at
the centre of the controversy.
IEBC chairman Isaac Hassan on Tuesday confirmed that the commission
had formally contacted the detectives to investigate how Ms Kilonzo
acquired an acknowledgement slip indicating that she was a registered
voter.
“Yes it is true I have written to the CID so that they can commence investigations into that matter,” he said.
On Monday, the IEBC tribunal ruled that Ms Kilonzo was not a
registered voter and locked her out of the Makueni Senate by-election
after she had been given a direct nomination by the Wiper Democratic
Party.
The IEBC Dispute Resolution Committee had recommended that her voter
registration acknowledgement slip be investigated. The committee,
chaired by commissioner Thomas Letangule, had revoked her nomination for
the Makueni senatorial race, and made said that the slip she had used
to secure her nomination was stolen from a booklet in which only one
other slip had been used to register retired president Mwai Kibaki.
The director of voter registration and electoral operations at IEBC,
Ms Immaculate Kassait, had claimed that the slip was one of five missing
from the booklet and the matter was already under investigation.
CID boss Ndegwa Muhoro on Tuesday said that he would name a team to investigate the theft allegations.
If detectives find that the slip was stolen, it could have
devastating criminal consequences on Ms Kilonzo who has maintained that
the slip was officially issued to her during registration last year.
Police say that possible charges would include stealing, handling stolen property or forgery.-
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