Thursday, June 27, 2013

IEBC to keep mum over TNA letter on Kethi Kilonzo

Updated Wednesday, June 26th 2013 at 23:52 GMT +3


PICK party leader Harun Mwau’s chopper prepares to land at Unoa Primary School grounds. He was to present his nomination papers to IEBC to run for the Makueni senatorial seat by-election at Wote Multi-purpose Catholic Hall, yesterday. [PHOTO: PAUL MUTUA/STANDARD]
By GEOFFREY MOSOKU
Kenya: Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ( IEBC) will not respond to a letter written by The National Alliance ( TNA) seeking to bar lawyer Kethi Kilonzo from vying for the Makueni Senate seat.
A top IEBC official yesterday told The Standard thatTNA did not follow the right procedure on objecting the Wiper party’s nominee for the July 22 by-election on claims that she is not a registered voter. The official said the President’s party was purporting to direct the electoral body on how to discharge its duties.
“It’s not the work of an individual or political party to direct the commission on how to certify the qualification of a candidate. They should have waited for the IEBC to accept her nomination papers and raise the objection,” he said. The official said TNAwould in any case have written to the IEBC returning officer for Makueni and not the commission’s chairman, Issack Hassan.
This came even as the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) told its rival Jubilee alliance not to panic over Kethi’s candidature for Makueni Senate by-election.
CORD senators David Musila, Moses Wetangula and Henry ole Ndiema said attempts by TNA to block Kethi’s nomination were in vain and motivated by a sense of defeat.
The senators who addressed reporters in Nairobi said Jubilee Coalition should concentrate on campaigning for their candidate instead of engaging in sideshows over the lawyer’s qualification. “We have decided to address you today following inquiries from you afterTNA wrote to IEBC claiming that our candidate is not qualified. But as a party we are satisfied that Kethi Kilonzo meets the qualifications as set out in Article 183 of the Constitution,” said Musila.
Musila, who is also Kitui Senator and Wiper party chairman, castigated TNA for purporting to usurp the powers of the electoral body to determine the suitability of any candidate.
“It’s not the work of TNA to determine if one is qualified or not but rather the IEBC,” he noted.
He said TNA was ‘running scared’ of Kethi and had resorted to desperate measures after President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party wrote to IEBC on Tuesday seeking to bar Kethi from contesting the seat.

No comments:

Post a Comment