Confusion As Raila, Karua Storm Out After Ruto's Arrival At IEBC Meeting

Fridah Wangechi | 1 year ago
Azimio One Kenya presidential running mate Martha Karua exiting the meeting. COURTESY

Azimio One Kenya Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua on Wednesday ,June 29 walked out of the consultative meeting with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) with other presidential candidates upon the arrival of Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate Deputy President William Ruto.

DP Ruto who arrived at the meeting 30 minutes after it started was seen making his way to the podium when Azimio presidential running mate Karua requested to leave together with Odinga saying they had other matters to attend to.

"We want to seek leave to attend to other matters, but we have a robust team behind us. We apologize for leaving before the end but duty calls," Karua stated as she made a hasty exit.

Their exit raised eyebrows with attendees left wondering if the political tension between the two presidential hopefuls was in play compelling Odinga to exit prematurely.

Roots party presidential candidate Prof George Wajackoyah who was accompanied by his Secretary General Aden Kadernani also made his exit after the DP took his seat eliciting further confusion.

The meeting had a dramatic beginning as self proclaimed activist Julius Kamau was kicked out of the meeting after creating disturbance.

Kamau seemed to have maintained his calm awaiting IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati's address when he bolted infront of him and interrupted him, making his demands which consequently led the meeting to a halt.

"I will not vote again, what I want is freedom and justice, I am ready to die for freedom and justice," the activist shouted.

Security scrambled to remove him and managed to whisk him away while he was still shouting at Chebukati and he was bundled out of the establishment.

The IEBC meeting is aimed at consulting the four presidential candidates namely Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya leader Raila Odinga, Deputy President William Ruto of Kenya Kwanza Alliance, George Wajakoyah of Roots Party and Agano Party’s David Mwaure on the electoral body's election preparedness especially after various concerns arose from the different factions.

Some of the issues include the issue of printed register of voters raised by both the Azimio and Kenya Kwanza teams, apprehensive over the IEBC's lack of a manual back up list of the voters as well as the issue of election results transmission and the harmonization of campaign schedules for the candidates among others.

IEBC's insistence of using only the biometric system to identify voters has raised fears as the factions argue that ballot papers can be printed in excess to manipulate the outcome of the polls and they want an assurance that the polls will not be tampered with.

On the transmission issue , Azimio questions how IEBC would transmit results from areas not covered by 3G and 4G networks despite  the electoral commission's assurance that it will use modem satellites.

Among the demands the Odinga-led coalition made to the IEBC was provision of a list of all polling stations and a geo-reference for each station.

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