IEBC Official Reported Missing While At Work

An official from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has been reported missing.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati announced in a press briefing on Friday, August 12 that the Returning Officer for Embakasi East constituency in Nairobi has been reported missing while on duty.

"Our returning officer for Embakasi East Constituency, Daniel Mucoka has been reported missing while on duty at the East African School of Aviation tallying centre," he announced.

Chebukati added that the commission had received reports that at around 9 am on Thursday, August 11, he was escorted by his bodyguard from his house to the tallying centre.

45 minutes later, he excused himself to make a telephone call but did not return to the centre.

"Mr Muchoka's family and the commission have been trying to reach him without success and his duties are being handled by the deputy returning officer. A report of a missing person has been made at the Embakasi police station under OB No. 24/11/8/2022.," he added.

Chebukati added that the commission was deeply concerned about the unfortunate incident and called upon the relevant security agencies to speedily investigate the matter.

The police are yet to issue a statement on the progress of their investigations.

Embakasi East is the same constituency that witnessed the re-election of its Member of Parliament (MP), Babu Owino, under an ODM ticket. He amassed 57,410 votes, ahead of Francis Mureithi under a UDA ticket, who managed to garner a total of 29,104 votes.

The missing official's report is a reminder of a 2017 incident whereby the commission's former ICT manager Chris Msando, vanished before he was found dead four days later in Kikuyu alongside the remains of a young woman whose identity was eventually determined to be Carol Ngumbu.

Hours after he went missing, his car, a Land Rover Discovery, was found in Roysambu, Nairobi County and one of the first people to discover it was Gatundu South MP, Moses Kuria.

Msando had barely been in the position for two months when his predecessor was fired for failing to work with the audit company hired to purge the voter list.

Msando was murdered just days before the general elections on August 8, 2017, and he expressed confidence that the elections would not be manipulated since the electronic voting system he had helped build could not be hacked.