There was drama at the Bomas of Kenya where the Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission (IEBC) was receiving documents from presidential aspirants seeking to contest for the seat in the August election.

Independent presidential aspirant Eliud Muthiora burnt his voters’ card after the IEBC rejected his application to contest for presidency in the August election.

Eliud Muthiora. PHOTO/IEBC

The commission did not clear Muthiora who was the 15th presidential aspirant to present his papers to the National Returning Officer for the second time, after failing to submit the required minimum number of supporters.

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“The Returning Officer for Presidential Election, Wafula Chebukati rejects the second application by Eliud Muthiora Kariara, an Independent aspirant, to be registered as a Presidential candidate for not submitting the required minimum number of supporters,” IEBC said.

Chebukati said Muthiora only submitted a bundle of ID cards but did not specify from which counties they had come.


Apparently, Muthiora’s running mate Miriam Mutua also failed to sign the Code of Conduct, which is a prerequisite for clearance.

According to Chebukati, only 19 counties were compliant with the IEBC requirements out of the 20 supporters’ lists Muthiora submitted.


Muthiora could not stomach the rejection anymore and expressed his disdain by lighting up his voters’ card in front of the IEBC chairperson.

Muthiora alleged there was some ID hawking at Harambee House by individuals whom he did not mention and suggested that there were some people who used a shortcut to achieve the IEBC requirement.

“It cost money for those that are able to get these documents, minimum of at least Sh10 for those that willingly gave it. We’ve had people hawking IDs from Harambee House, those that have the Monopoly of these documents. We chose not to take the shortcut, we went the long pattern and we fell short,” Muthiora said.


Muthiora is the last candidate to have his application rejected in the IEBC clearing process, which ends on Monday.

Other independent presidential candidates who had their bids turned down over various reasons include Dorothy Kemunto, George Munyotta, Gibson Ngaruiya, Jane Munyeki, James Kamau and Jeremiah Nyanga.