Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan said the Commission had recalled its CEO from an overseas trip and his personal aide suspended over an alleged smear campaign targeting Commissioners August 3, 2011. WILLIAM OERI
By WALTER MENYA wmenya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Wednesday, August 3 2011 at 17:27
Posted Wednesday, August 3 2011 at 17:27
The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) chief executive James Oswago has been recalled from an overseas trip and his personal aide suspended over an alleged smear campaign targeting Commissioners.
The Commission has also invited the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) to investigate the allegations which the chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan termed as "totally false".
Mr Hassan, seven commissioners and the secretariat staff were responding to allegations of nepotism, corruption and infighting that were contained in a widely-circulated document that was anonymously e-mailed to the media in the past week.
Mr Hassan, who addressed a news conference Wednesday said the personal aide to Mr Oswago, Allan Odongo, was suspended after investigations unearthed articles on his laptop computer.
“Some of the articles are word for word of what has been printed in a local paper’s opinion pages under a different by-line. 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.
Mr Hassan blamed the leaking and publication of the document on “some forces” who would like to influence who manages the 2012 elections.
“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.
Present were commissioners Davis Chirchir, Winnie Guchu, Yusuf A Nzibo, Tiyah Galgalo, Ken Nyaundi, Hamara Ibrahim Adan, Douglas Mwashigadi and Deputy CEO Gladys Shollei among other secretariat staff.
The document, which Nation also obtained a copy, raises the red flag over the appointment of the Regional Election Coordinators (RECs), Constituency Election Coordinators (CECs) and Managers. Some of the grassroots election officials, it states, are close friends or relatives of some commissioners.
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Very true, Last time i resigned on IIEC contract as Document verification Officer after realizing that one of the commissioners had a hand on on the affairs of the region and that most of my other colleagues were all brought in through nepotism and our team leader being a relative to one of the commissioners. A teacher by profession but was made a team leader in an IT related work.
ReplyDeleteThe aide is being crucified for the truth. Please who will help this guy?
ReplyDelete