The vice-chairperson Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Julian Cherera has filed her response to the Presidential Election Petition filed at the Supreme Court.

The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition leader Raila Odinga and his deputy Martha Karua filed the petition challenging President-elect William Ruto’s win.

Azimio leadership listed Cherera as the Fifth respondent in the petition filed at the Supreme Court.

Cherera, in her affidavit responding to the petition, cited a lack of transparency while she and the other commissioners with whom she denounced the presidential election results as they were read by the commission’s chairperson Wafula Chebukati while they were working under their boss.

"THAT since joining the Commission, myself. JUSTUS NYANGAYA, FRANCIS WANDERI and IRENE MASIT have experienced a pattern of incessant and continuous lack of transparency by Wafula Chebukati, contempt for fellow Commissioners," the affidavit read.

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Justus Nyang'aya, Juliana Cherera, Irene Masit and Francis Wanderi. PHOTO/TWITTER

She outlined six ways in which the commission’s boss acted against the normal IEBC procedure.

Cherera intimated Chebukati transferred returning officers without consulting with the other commissioners as required by the commission’s transfer policies.

"Returning officers are permanent members of staff at IEBC who could only be transferred after 5 years but Wafula Chebukati, in a departure from this transfer policy, transferred the ROs on 30th March 2022 without the approval of the commission," the affidavit read.

According to Cherera’s affidavit, Chebukati did not convene a meeting to appraise the commissioners on implementing recommendations of the KPMG audit of the voter register.


“Failure to convene a meeting to appraise the Commissioners on implementation of the recommendations in the Report of the Independent Audit of the Register of Voters by KPMG,” she said.

Cherera also said Chebkati failed to complete the recruitment of the Director of Voter Registration and Election Operations.

She also said the IEBC chairman did not inform the other commissioners that he ordered for the printing of two sets of the Forms 34A booklets which she only found out when she visited the firm on their trip with representatives of the presidential candidates.

“Failing to inform the Commissioners that Lykos (Hellas) SA the printing firm/ contractor in Greece to print two sets of booklets Forms 34A being Form 1 of 2 and Form 2 of 2 which I discovered when I visited the firm together with the representatives of the presidential candidates,” the affidavit read.

Cherera also accused Chebukati of usurping the roles of the Chairpersons of Commission Legal Committee, ICT Committee and Deputy CEO-Operations in complete disregard for good corporate governance.

She also said Chebukati issued unilateral press statements without consulting them.