Ex-IEBC Commissioner Dr. Roselyn Akombe has released another dossier in the commission days after resignation of three other commissioners.
In her end of assignment report which she presented to IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati after her dramatic resignation last year in October, Akombe exposes the rot at IEBC.
The report was leaked on Saturday though it is dated October 30, 2017. She cites that the commission is reeling in institutional and operational issues.
This came after vice chair Consolata Maina, commissioners Paul Kurgat and Margaret Mwachanya resigned last week on Monday citing lack of faith in Chebukati.
Akombe revealed massive corruption in procurement processes by the commission. Training her guns on suspended IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba, Akombe notes that the procurement of KIEMS kits was warped in graft.
She went on to state that Chiloba used time constraints as an excuse to ensure ballot printing went to one single entity.
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“The ballot papers saga is one in which we the commissioners were held captive by the secretariat… this was the trend in high-cost issues. Time was used as a way of tying your hands to take the decision that the CEO had wanted from the very beginning,” Akombe states in her 93-page report according to the Star.
She adds that procurement evaluation at the commission was a “make-a-killing platform” for committees.
“There was a running joke that the only meetings which commission staff would attend on time were the tender evaluation committee meetings. The trend is the same when it comes to tenders at the constituency level.”
Further indicting Chiloba, she says IT aspects of the commission were a secret to the CEO and ICT director James Muhati.
She called for an investigation into the role Safran/OT Morpho in the role they played as IT consultants in the last year’s general polls.
“The dominance of Safran/OT Morpho in all aspects of the commission’s work is an aspect worth in-depth investigations, including their role in the 2017 election.
“Technology cannot replace trust, credibility and transparency. If the country decides that it needs to use technology in its elections, then the commission needs to move away from inventing new technology each and every election year and use existing technology that has been used continuously by other countries,” she remarks.
She offers that there needs to be political dialogue on how to manage elections better and address historical injustices in Kenya’s electioneering system and presidential dominance by just two communities.
“Even if the world’s best commissioners are recruited to manage the 2022 elections, the process will not address the deep grievances that I heard as I traveled across the country. Delivery of a free fair and credible election in 2022 requires more than electoral reforms and electoral justice. It requires a rebirth of Kenya,” she says.
She proposes having two foreign commissioners who for purposes of eliminating bias and political interference.
Akombe also proposes radical changes which will have the commission’s chairman as the man with power while the Executive Chairman is the accounting officer and not the CEO as is the case.
The commissioners will thereof, going by her proposal, be responsible for each of the directorates of the commission.