The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati has said it will be difficult to guarantee free, fair and credible repeat polls.
The statement came after Dr Roselyn Akombe who has served as a commissioner at the electoral commission quit and fled to New York.
In an interview with BBC,on Wednesday, Akombe indicted the commission stating it will be hard for it to deliver free and credible polls.
Akombe said partisan politics have hit the commission’s secretariat and the commissioners as well whiuch makes it hard to deliver a transparent election.
And to amplify her statement, Chebukati who addressed the press on the issue as raised by Akombe said time has come for political players to come together and thrash out thorny issue impeding repeat polls.
At this point, with about seven days remaining to the polls, it is not yet clear if the course is still on.
Chebukati also said he will not tolerate threats against the IEBC anymore.
But a section of NASA MPs have renewed their call for Chebukati’s resignation.
Led by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, the MPs said with confessions brought forward by Dr Akombe, the commission should admit it has no capacity to deliver credible repeat polls.
“Chebukati has an opportunity to save this country from crisis. The commission, as currently constituted, lacks moral and legal credibility. He should tender his resignation immediately to give Kenyans room to go back to the drawing board,” he said in a press address in Parliament.
Wandayi said Chebukati was to resign last week but was stopped by state agents.
“Chebukati has been under siege because of the veto powers of the four commissioners and the CEO who are serving their masters. Akombe has now confirmed to the world what we as NASA have been agitating for.”
But even with the new developments, Al Ghurair has already completed printing 18 million ballot papers for the repeat polls.
Lakshmanan Ganapathy, General Manager of Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing said this covers 90 per cent of the job.