The ‘Opaque 4’ at IEBC could have thrown our country into anarchy

The desertion by four poll commissioners from the presidential winner fete is a tragic disgrace that could have plunged the nation into chaos. This reality must have dawned on them overnight when the dishevelled quartet resurfaced at another presser on Tuesday.

Seemingly coached but still fearful, uncertain, scared and incoherent, their presser was a cheap case of trivialities. And the content similarity with another by Azimio flagbearer Raila Odinga smacks of choreographed complicity.  They couldn’t get their math correct; they complained about a “mathematical absurdity” in tallies announced by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati but also made their own numerical absurdity.

They complained about lack of registered voters and votes cast in the Chebukati announcement without providing the evidence; they whined about not being consulted as if they wanted to take a vote on the results before releasing them; then ‘revealed’ that some constituencies were missing in the totals, without stating which ones.

They made fools of themselves by questioning the power of the chairman as enshrined in the Constitution and law by disputing that he, indeed, is the Returning Officer for the presidential election; not less, showed incompetence by referencing a wrong Supreme Court ruling. There was too much self-pity, boardroom hearsay without an iota of evidence. Theirs is a dispute about how meetings are conducted at IEBC , nothing more.

46,299 polling stations

In incredulously claiming that they weren’t consulted on tallies, they conveniently forgot that IEBC had uploaded Forms 34C (459 pages) that totals tallies from 46,299 polling stations into Forms 34B across 291 constituencies. Their allegation of discrepancies falls flat because the same fellows publicly read out constituency results, which all chief agents at Bomas had signed.

It is not clear what they’re disputing: The fact that they didn’t do tallying themselves, the incorrectness of the tally or that the final tally was announced by the chairman? Yet, they admit they, indeed, had a meeting. When cornered by media, they couldn’t clarify their own allegations, calling into question who authored the presser statement.

Still, Kenyans must be alive to the reality that their deceptive, solicited but horrifying plot would have sabotaged the declaration of the President-elect and thrown the country into violence. Imagine the security void; with the IEBC deadline passed, no results announced, a tattered commission and no clear legal clarity on the way forward.

It was an invitation to anarchy. President Uhuru Kenyatta would have remained in power, yes. But for how long? With no winner announced and a divided IEBC that wouldn’t conduct a repeat election, the country would have teetered on a bloody precipice. At Bomas, the plot was ingenious in the simplicity of its execution; sprint off renegade commissioners to a hurried press conference off the premises, create a ruckus at the dais to prevent Mr Chebukati from announcing results, abduct and cart away the computer, causing bedlam for announcement deadline to pass.

Their presser was a cheap shot that provides insight into their ill-motive and earning the nickname of proxies. For whom are vice-chairperson Juliana Cherera and her fellow commissioners Justus Nyang’aya, Irene Masit and Francis Wanderi working for?

Conspiracy theorist

Indeed, any conspiracy theorist would argue that it isn’t by accident that the newly recruited (last September) foursome by Mr Kenyatta after an inordinate delay to fill the vacancies, are suspect. That they would gang up against the older colleagues, is a tell-tale pointer to the involvement of external forces in their attempted disruption of the IEBC result tally. At the presser, their Azimio minders hovered in the background.

There is another thing: Social media memes are clogged with who their real godfathers could be. The court nullified Ms Masit’s appointment in June. No wonder she played the mummy at the presser, uttering no word. Both Ms Cherera and Mr Nyang’aya have close links to two governors and Mr Wanderi is linked to a Jubilee outgoing MP from Nyeri.

Then there is the ridiculous: These are the commissioners who frequently announced Form 34B constituency tallies on the IEBC podium now claiming ignorance of the same results. What does this say about their aptitude in due diligence, or is theirs sheer duplicity?

How then did they wait until the last minute to raise their concerns? Does it mean they abetted a crime and are trying to exempt themselves from it? They verified Forms 34B against 34A to produce 34C. Their demeanour shows people scared out of their wits but herded into compliance.

Mr Kabatesi is a political commentator.  [email protected].