Cherera's 74-Section Affidavit: How Chebukati Acted Illegally
Her affidavit comes amidst reports that Chebukati had kicked out all commissioners from the commission’s WhatsApp group amidst worsening relationships with the commissioners.
Marvin Chege 
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) vice-chairperson, Juliana Cherera has accused her boss, Wafula Chebukati, of carrying out his duties without transparency and without the consent of his fellow commissioners.
In her affidavit filed in response to a presidential petition filed by the Azimio Presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua on Saturday, August 27, Cherera noted six instances that Chebukati acted incessantly and continuously without transparency as well as contempt for fellow commissioners.
She accused Chebukati of bullying in making certain decisions without consulting them. Specifically, he unilaterally undertook the transfer of Returning Officers (RO) without consulting fellow commissioners.
"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," she stated in the affidavit.
Cherera added that Chebukati failed to convene a meeting to appraise the Commissioners on the implementation of the recommendations in the report of the audit of the register of voters by KPMG.
He was also accused of failing to complete the recruitment of the Director of Voter Registration and Election Operations.
She also claimed that Chebukati failed to inform the Commissioners that Lykos (Hellas) SA the printing firm/contractor in Greece was to print two sets of booklets Form 34A being form 1 of 2 and form 2 of 2 which she discovered when she visited the firm together with the representatives of the presidential candidates.
"Usurping the role of the Chairpersons of Commission Legal Committee, ICT Committee and Deputy CEO-Operations in complete disregard to good governance," added the affidavit.
Cherera also accused the chairperson of generally issuing press statements without consulting the commissioners.
Moreover, she alleged that she was assigned by Chebukati to be in charge of the media and call centre but she could not explain why the constituency results being read by the commissioners were not being projected on the display screens in the National Tallying Centre at Bomas of Kenya. She claimed that the display screens were not refreshed since Friday, August 12 which was to show the cumulative tally of the results of each of the four presidential candidates since that day.
"That the failure to display the results on the screen was contrary to the principle of transparency required in electoral process and right to information," she added.
She also accused him of transferring Irene Masit and Justus Nyang'anya to roles unrelated to the tallying and verification process. Masit was placed in charge of hospitality which covered logistics and security from the chair of the legal committee while Nyang'anya was placed in charge of protocol (receiving VIPs) from chairing the ICT committee, despite the technology being central to the election process.
Her affidavit comes amidst reports that Chebukati had kicked out all commissioners from the commission’s WhatsApp group amidst worsening relationships with the commissioners.
