Kidero seeks Homa Bay election material from IEBC, to challenge Wanga win

Evans Kidero

Homa Bay County independent governor candidate in the 2022 General Election Evans Kidero.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Former Nairobi governor Evans Kidero is seeking crucial information from the electoral commission to enable him file a petition challenging the election of Gladys Wanga as the second governor of Homa Bay County.

Dr Kidero wrote a letter to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) asking for material used during the August 9 election in the county.

Ms Wanga was declared winner of the gubernatorial race with 244, 559 votes against Dr Kidero's 154,182 votes, a difference of 90,377 votes.

Mr Mark Rabudi of UDA came third with 1244 votes.

Dr Kidero is, however, convinced he won the election as he alleged the exercise was manipulated in favour of the former woman representative.

Through Okweh Achiando and Company Advocates, the former City county chief asked for data on how elections were conducted in Homa Bay.

“We hereby, under our client’s constitutional rights to access to information, request to be supplied with documents and information with respect to Homa Bay County,” the letter dated August 24 reads in part.

In the letter addressed to the secretary of the commission, Dr Kidero is seeking copies of all forms 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39 A, B and Cs obtained from all polling stations and tallying centres in the county.

He also wants audit logs of all Kenya Integrated Electoral Management System (Kiems) kits transmitted from the polling stations to the tallying centres during the poll.

Dr Kidero also wants the commission to provide him with the static Internet Protocol (IP address) of each Kiems kit used during the Homa Bay gubernatorial election.

In the letter, the former governor also wants specific General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) locations of each of the electoral gadgets for a period between August 8 and August 11 and all SD cards used in the machines during the exercise.

In addition, Dr Kidero wants a count of the number of voters identified by each machine used in the poll as well as the number of voters identified alpha numerically and the number of voters identified manually.

This is alongside copies of manual registers used during the poll and poll diaries used on August 9.

In the letter copied to the county returning officer Fredrick Apopa, Dr Kidero wants the information within seven days and agreed to pay any reasonable charges upon notification.

“In the event that we don't receive the said documents or information within the time presided above, we shall take such further legal action as we shall deem fit and appropriate,” the letter reads.