Raila Defends Cherera 4 Actions In Attack On US Ambassador
Raila alleged that the international community would not have deemed that as transparent and fair...
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Azimio la Umoja leader, Raila Odinga has once again defended the bold move by the four commissioners who had been terminated from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to reject the 2022 presidential election results.
Speaking during the burial of Kenya’s first female Member of Parliament (MP) Grace Onyango in Siaya County on Friday, March 31, the Azimio leader had challenged the United States (US) Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman's take on four out of six members of an electoral commission rejecting election results in a US setting.
Raila alleged that the international community would not have deemed that as transparent and fair, in an apparent attack on Whitman for alleging that the Kenyan 2022 election results were fair.
"The election commission consisted of seven members, the chairman and another member saying yes and four members saying no. I asked her that if that happened in America, that four members of the electoral institution rejected the results and two accepted them, would it be considered a free and fair election?" the former Prime Minister posed.
Raila turned his verbal guns on Whitman, exposing details of a private meeting with the ambassador where she asked him to accept the election results and stop the mass protests against the President William Ruto-led government.
He recounted that Whitman was appointed by the US President Joe Biden's administration as envoy to Kenya and had landed in the East African country days before the August polls.
“She was saying that Kenya had the most transparent election in the history of Kenya last year in August.
“I told her that she did not know what she was talking about. She was in the country a few days before those elections took place,” Raila stated.
Raila affirmed that Kenyans deserved to know what happened during the polls and to ensure that the same error was not replicated in future elections.
"Kenyans have a right in light of the new information that emerged to question the results which were announced. That is how electoral democracy is built.
"They must allow Kenyans to make a decision of their own. We demand that the servers are opened so that we can continue to interrogate the results in the servers," he urged.
Former vice-chairperson Juliana Cherera, Justus Nyang'aya and Francis Wanderi all resigned from the IEBC while were being investigated over their conduct after they disputed the presidential election results declared by former IEBC chairperson, Wafula Chebukati on August 15, 2022, citing “opaqueness” in the manner the results were counted and determined.
After the Supreme Court later upheld the elections, petitions were filed challenging their suitability to hold office. Despite the probe targeting all the four commissioners, termed the Cherera 4, former commissioner Irene Masit's three colleagues all resigned before the hearings began, leaving her to face the tribunal alone.
For Masit, a tribunal chaired by Justice Aggrey Muchelule which was set up by the President to probe the conduct of the commission, recommended her removal from office, which was thereafter implemented by the president.
Meanwhile, Raila addressed Azimio leaders who had joined Kenya Kwanza, demanding them to resign because they had been elected under the coalition by those who believed in the vision of Azimio.
Further, he reiterated that the mass protests would continue until their demands were met, despite Whitman raising an alarm on reports of attacks against journalists during the protests, terming them as unacceptable.
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