Chebukati: Don’t harass IEBC officials
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati, CEO Marjan Hussein and commissioners Abdi Guliye and Bolu Moya arrive at Muuani Village in Machakos County for the burial of Daniel Mbolu Musyoka, the slain Embakasi East Returning Officer.
What you need to know:
- Mr Chebukati decried a plot by powerful individuals to intimidate and harm IEBC officials during every election cycle.
- Mr Chebukati lamented that the police and the DCI are doing little to end the attacks on IEBC officials.
- IEBC staff members have expressed fear for their safety saying they are having to look over their shoulders following increased attacks on their colleagues.
The chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Wafula Chebukati has asked politicians to stop harassing his officials.
Speaking during the burial of former Embakasi East returning officer Daniel Mbolu Musyoka, who was reportedly abducted and found dead two weeks ago, Mr Chebukati decried a plot by powerful individuals to intimidate and harm IEBC officials during every election cycle.
Mr Musyoka was the Embakasi East returning officer and had successfully conducted the election before he disappeared from his station.
His lifeless body was found days later in Oloitokitok, Kajiado County.
"The abduction and elimination of IEBC officers such as Mr Musyoka whom we mourn today fit in an unfortunate pattern of harassment and intimidation of our staff. In this General Election, the abuse of IEBC staff reached an unimaginable scale. In an incident never witnessed before, commissioners Abdi Guliye and Bolu Molu, CEO Hussein Marjan and I were physically assaulted and injured at the National Tallying Centre at Bomas of Kenya," he said at Muuani Village in Machakos yesterday.
Mr Chebukati lamented that the police and the DCI are doing little to end the attacks on IEBC officials.
He wondered why detectives were yet to unearth the killers of Mr Musyoka and those of Chris Musando, the electoral body’s ICT manager who was murdered in the run-up to the 2017 General Election.
He was accompanied by Mr Hussein, Mr Guliye and Mr Moya.
He lauded IEBC officials who had stood their ground against intimidation by powerful forces, saying the electoral agency will not be cowed.
Mr Musyoka, a former secondary school teacher, was 53.
Pastor Daniel Njuguna, who had served Mr Musyoka for more than 10 years in a Nakuru church, said he was a man of integrity.
No arrests made
As of last week, investigators had identified two persons of interest with regard to the official’s abduction and death.
However, no arrests have been made so far and police have gone mute on the progress of the investigations.
Yesterday, the Nation made attempts to get an update on the investigations from the National Police Service spokesman, Bruno Shioso, but our calls went unanswered.
At the same time, investigations into the sudden death of the former Gichugu returning officer Geoffrey Gitobu have hit a dead end after pathologists concluded he died of “natural causes”.
A postmortem examination of his body at Nanyuki Cottage Hospital mortuary concluded that he died from a blood clot in his pulmonary artery.
His family, however, maintained that the IEBC official did not have any known health conditions prior to his death.
At the same time, some of his colleagues who spoke to the Nation on condition of anonymity claimed he appeared shaken following a scuffle at his station in Gichugu during the just-concluded elections.
Gitobu was caught up in a melee between supporters of Ms Anne Waiguru and Purity Wangui Ngirici over rigging claims.
“He was definitely traumatised because of that incident. He barely spoke from that moment and appeared quite shaken,” a former colleague told the Nation.
DCI detectives in Nanyuki maintain investigations are still ongoing despite the outcome of the postmortem examination.
IEBC staff members have since expressed fear for their safety saying they are having to look over their shoulders following increased attacks on their colleagues.
