Two IEBC officials arrested in Narok for tampering with voting
Narok Senator Ledama ole Kina inquiring from IEBC officials on why some number of votes of two governor aspirants had been interchanged on August, 10, 2022
Two IEBC presiding officers have been arrested for allegedly interfering with polling in separate incidents in Narok County.
The latest incident happened on Wednesday at 2pm during the announcement of results at the Narok North constituency tallying centre.
The worker was said to have presented false results, which were later found to have been swapped to favour one of the top governor candidates.
Drama ensued at the tallying centre after one agent representing ODM candidate Moitalel Ole Kenta raised concerns that the results that were being read out were not in tandem with what they had signed at the Entupiyaki polling station, where Mr Kenta's over 400 votes were reduced to below 50.
The matter raised temperatures at the station, with those supporting the Azimio candidate questioning the credibility of the process.
As a result of the incident, UDA candidate Patrick Ntutu’s representatives briefly entered the Maasai Girls Secondary School tallying centre and had a brief chat with Mr Kenta’s agents before leaving.
Moments later, Mr Kenta stormed the tallying centre demanding answers about the incident before leaving.
A few minutes later, DCI sleuths raided the tallying centre, picked up the suspect, a female presiding officer, and the affected voting materials and took her for questioning at the Narok Police Station.
Speaking to journalists at his office, County Commissioner Isaac Masinde confirmed the two incidents, saying the two suspects will be charged on Thursday.
Mr Masinde said the other suspect was arrested in Narok East constituency, where he attempted to add votes to one of the contestants.
"We are on high alert as the county security team and we have resorted to having officers in the rank of OCS to man tallying centres as a way of averting such incidents in future," warned Mr Masinde.
Following the incident, Mr Kenta addressed reporters outside the polling centre and called on the IEBC to suspend the vote tallying, especially in the governor’s race or order a recount.
"It cannot be a coincidence that my votes are swapped with those of my opponent by IEBC officials. This could be a scheme and nobody knows its extent. That is why we want all our votes recounted or [the IEBC to] suspend the entire vote-counting exercise forthwith," Mr Kenta said.
Area returning officer Julius Okweto, who called in the police to address the issue, handed over the suspect to authorities.
