The hearings against Murang’a Woman Rep Sabina Chege before the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is slotted to begin on Tuesday. IEBC summoned the Jubilee Party MP to answer to charges regarding a statement she allegedly made at a public rally in Siaya County two weeks ago – that the allegation that the 2017 elections were rigged was true.
“Kuna ka ukweli hapo….(There some truth in that)”, she is reported by the media as having said.
Four words that triggered her current troubles with the IEBC.
Attempts by the senator for Siaya and senior counsel James Orengo to argue that Ms Chege was not guilty of an electoral offence committed before the campaign period had officially began were dismissed on the grounds that the electoral cycle kicked off in January, when IEBC rolled out its calendar, which is now in the advanced stages of executions.
Besides the technicalities of the case, IEBC and its chairman, Wafula Chebukati, might expose themselves more than they may have bargained for.
Ms Chege’s alleged offence is based on his actions in the management of the 2017 General Election. By insinuating that there was ‘some’ veracity in vote rigging claim, Chege could only have meant that by extension, it could only have happened under Chebukati’s watch as the chairman of IEBC, whose main mandate was to ensure integrity of the election process and the results.
The Supreme Court faulted the process as lacking integrity having been contaminated by irregularities. It nullified the results and ordered a repeat poll.
For an IEBC headed by Chebukati to find itself charging a beneficiary of a bungled election for claiming that there was truth in the allegation of’ election fraud hoists a legal conundrum for the electoral body’s boss; the prospect of being the accuser and judge in own case.
The adage that the arch of the moral universe may be long but bends towards justice could just catch up with Chebukati unless he opts for a voluntary early exit to save face.
Instructively since the stinging indictment, Chebukati has never found it in himself to come clean and give his side of the story to his ultimate employer; the taxpayer. The case may just provide the platform to compel him to rebut Cheges claim. Significantly, despite court orders, he continues to refuse to open the computer servers for public scrutiny.
The case raises the prospect of Chebukati being compelled by court to bare his 2017 skeletons with the attendant outrage that Kenyans are at his mercy again. The whole affair reeks of impunity on the rampage. In his estimation, the erosion of trust in public officers and offices and the damage to the institutional image of lEBC seems to count for little.
Chebukati, 60, seems to wear a thick insular rhino hide, stumbling from one crisis to the next without a care about public opinions. To him. there are no limits to the threshold of tolerance of impunity.
To secure his legacy and spare IEBC the cost of defending him, Chebukati should resign in good faith.
