IEBC Chases Politicians From Bomas

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has ordered politicians out of the Bomas of Kenya, which is the commission's National Tallying Centre.

Commissioner Abdi Guliye announced on Saturday, August 13 that politicians and anyone without a specific duty have been barred from the tallying centre which is carrying out verification of the Forms 34A and 34B.

Guliye added that the directive is in line with the commission's plan to speed up the process and conclude on time, without interruption from politicians and other unauthorised individuals.

The Commissioner further noted that IEBC would only allow the Chief Agents of the presidential candidates, their deputies and clerks assisting in the verification process to access the auditorium, as well as members of the media.

"Moving forward, IEBC’s national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya will only allow the presence of chief and deputy chief agents and clerks who are doing the verification; no one else is allowed!

"We have also given instructions at the gate that no one should be allowed at the venue. That is the instructions we have given to the police," Guliye added.

Other than the media, election observers and diplomats were allowed to stay and monitor the tallying process.

Complaints could be heard across the tallying centre as the politicians proceeded out of the auditorium. Leaders of the Kenya Kwanza team and the Azimio la Umoja faction could be heard protesting the order to send them out.

Various politicians allied to the two coalitions led by Deputy President William Ruto and Raila Odinga had been trooping to the tallying centre to monitor the process, since the beginning of the verification of the Form 34Bs.

Their presence has been endangering the process as the two factions clashed on multiple occasions in the wake of suspicious activity by some of the agents.

More steps taken by the commission include the returning officers submitting the Form 34 As and 34Bs to him first before handing them over to various departments to verify. The commission has so far verified and announced the results from 84 constituencies out of 291, with a race against time to complete and announce the final results by Tuesday, August 16.

The order comes hours after Azimio running mate, Martha Karua, urged the politicians to monitor the verification process to protect their votes.

Martha Karua meeting Kalonzo Musyoka and Junet Mohamed ahead of the Azimio elected leaders inaugural conference at KICC. /TWITTER

“If you look at everything, including all the other seats combined, there is no way, no way, the tally can be against us. And by the way, we have tallied, it’s just that we don’t have the power to announce ourselves,”

“The forms were in the portal and we took copies and tallied and we know where we are and we know if we had the power by now we would have called it for ourselves but we will wait for that announcement,” she spoke during a meeting with Azimio newly-elected leaders at KICC on Saturday.