Election body recalls CEO from trip in hate probe

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IIEC chairman Mr.Ahmed Issack Hassan on August 03, 2011 during a press conference. PHOTO / William Oeri  

By WALTER MENYA wmenya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Wednesday, August 3  2011 at  20:00

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The Interim Independent Electoral Commission has recalled chief officer James Oswago from an overseas trip and suspended his personal assistant in a crackdown on a smear campaign targeting commissioners.

The IIEC has also called in the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) to investigate allegations of nepotism, corruption and infighting.

Chairman Ahmed Isaack Hassan dismissed the allegations as “totally false” and political.

“We have operated this commission with utmost high standards and professionalism. We hired a human resource firm to do the recruitment. This is the first time that the electoral commission was even advertising for clerks. We have been very professional and transparent. That is the reason we find those allegations very malicious and just out to destroy us,” he said.

Mr Hassan said Mr Allan Odongo was suspended after articles painting the commission in bad light were found on his laptop.

“Some of the articles are word for word of what has been printed in a local paper’s opinion pages under a different byline. The other articles were due to be released in subsequent publications. The commission has since suspended the said officer pending further investigations,” the IIEC chairman said.

But Mr Odongo disowned the articles in a letter to the chairman, and questioned the motive of suspending him without pay.

“A word document titled Seven Facts You Did Not Know about IIEC and which was found on my office laptop was given to me, together with other materials, from another source. Please note that the said documents alleged to have been found on my laptop are common documents circulating around in the media houses and a section of the civil society,” Mr Odongo stated.

He said the articles raised fundamental issues on governance, integrity and the rule of law.

Earlier, Mr Hassan said the suspended officer had told investigators that he was acting alone.

Mr Oswago left for the Philippines early this week. Mr Hassan and Commissioner Winnie Guchu were to travel with him, but abandoned the trip at the eleventh hour.

“If I was away with him in Philippines, we would not have been able to do the investigations we did to uncover the truth and actually go to the bottom of it,” the chairman told journalists flanked by commissioners Davis Chirchir, Guchu, Yusuf Nzibo, Tiyah Galgalo, Ken Nyaundi, Hamara Ibrahim Adan, Douglas Mwashigadi and Deputy CEO Gladys Shollei.

The contentious articles doing the rounds on email claim commissioners appointed their friends and allies to secretariat and field positions, and were holding brief for their political masters.

“The timing of these malicious allegations is suspect. We are in a transition and it is highly possible that some forces would like to influence who manages the 2012 elections. There is evidence that they are using some of our staff to champion their selfish interests,” said the IIEC boss.

The fallout has been linked to succession wars, with a new team expected to take over soon.