Two Isiolo MPs summoned over election chaos claims

Isiolo North MP Hassan Odha, Woman Rep Rehema Jaldesa and Senate candidate Nuh Mohammed Ibrahim on Friday had a date with detectives over alleged plans to commit election-related offences ahead of Tuesday’s elections.

The leaders were summoned on Thursday and appeared before county criminal investigations boss Betty Chepng’eno on Friday morning to respond to the allegations.

Mr Odha was accused of planning to disrupt elections in some parts of Isiolo North, while Ms Jaldesa and Mr Nuh were reportedly facilitating a programme to prevent voters at the Kubi Sera and Koticha polling stations from voting.

Addressing journalists at the Isiolo Police Station, the leaders rubbished the allegations as baseless, saying they had no intention of disrupting the electoral process as they too want peace.

Electoral offences

“We came here to honour summonses over alleged intention to commit electoral offences. The allegations are unfounded and we have no plan to disrupt the electoral process before, during and after elections,” Mr Nuh said.

Pointing an accusing finger at their competitors, the leaders said the claims were meant to malign their names, and coerce and intimidate them and their supporters so that they do not take part in the elections.

MP Odha said among the areas where he was accused of planning to disrupt polls were his strongholds.

“We have no such intent because we are the ones who would lose (voters). How would I disrupt elections in my strongholds?” he posed.

Ms Jaldesa asked their supporters to remain calm and come out in large numbers on August 9 to elect their preferred leaders and then retreat to their homes and wait for the results to be announced.

Mr Nuh asked the security team to be impartial and fair during the elections and offer candidates a level playing ground so that residents could independently make their decisions at the ballot box.

“We aspire to unite Isiolo communities and any attempt by our opponents to depict us in bad light should be resisted. Elections will come and pass and Isiolo people will shake hands and usher in new leadership,” he said.

County Commissioner Geoffrey Omoding on Thursday revealed that the summonses were related to, among others, the newly created Kubi Sera and Koticha polling stations and maintained that no voter would be barred from voting.

Voter transfers

Former Isiolo Speaker and Isiolo South Jubilee MP candidate Mohammed Tupi earlier this week alleged illegal voter transfers to Kubi Sera, saying the majority of the 308 registered voters there were “not living in Isiolo”.

“IEBC should probe the issue because our people could have wrong leaders in office should we allow people living in other counties to come and vote here,” Mr Tupi said at the time.

The leaders cried foul over what they described as selective justice, saying that their competitors had made inflammatory statements in the past but no action had been taken against them.

“[Our opponents] have made statements that could plunge the county into chaos and cause disharmony but we have not seen them being summoned,” Ms Jaldesa said.