Fraud claims could sink Kethi Kilonzo's political debut

Updated Saturday, July 6th 2013 at 23:14 GMT +3

Fraud claims could sink Kethi’s political debut

By Moses Njagih and Felix Olick

Kethi Kilonzo’s political debut was on Saturday hanging by a thread after the electoral body termed the circumstances surrounding her acquisition of a voter’s card a “fraud”

But the ebullient lawyer put up a gallant fight, maintaining that she was validly registered as a voter and hence eligible to run for election. During a daylong session, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ( IEBC) claimed that the voter verification slip relied on to prove that Kethi was a registered voter was stolen from its custody and was now the matter of a criminal investigation.

The IEBC director-in-charge of voter registration, Ms Immaculate Kasait, threw the spanner in the works, maintaining that Kethi was not a registered voter in Kenya.

This is not one of the slips that was distributed anywhere in the country. This slip is from a booklet used to register only the former President Mwai Kibaki. This particular slip and four others were stolen from the commission’s offices,” said Kasait.

Serious fraud

Kethi, who is seeking to succeed his late father Mutula Kilonzo as Makueni Senator on a CORDticket, will now have to await her fate when the Nomination Disputes Resolutions tribunal delivers its verdict tomorrow.

If the tribunal rules against her, it will be interesting to see what happens to her nascent political career.

Last night, critics who spoke to The Standard On Sunday said the allegations of fraud were serious, and if upheld by the tribunal could easily impact her legal career.

The Law Society of Kenya has a strict regime of punishing errant members that includes disbarment.

However, if she has her way, Kethi, whose representation of Africog in the presidential petition against the election of Uhuru Kenyatta at the Supreme Court won plaudits — could be poised to make history as the first elected woman Senator.

Provide

Yesterday, Ms Kasait revealed that an investigation had been opened into how the registration slip, now under Kethi’s custody, left the commission’s warehouse. But she was adamant that the same was stolen.

Kasait told the Committee that their investigation indicated that the slip in question was removed from a special booklet used to register the former President.

That booklet was not among those distributed for purposes of voter registration, and was returned to the IEBC stores after Kibaki was enlisted at the launch of the Biometric Voter Registration exercise, she said.

Kasait further revealed that in the process of investigating Kethi’s slip, they had discovered that four others from the “Kibaki booklet” had also been stolen.

“As far as we are concerned, she (Kethi) is not a registered voter anywhere. Her possession of the voter verification slip is a matter now under investigation,” she said.

The commission had noted many anomalies in Kethi’s status, she said, which prompted a scrutiny of all booklets distributed to ascertain where and when she was registered.

“It was only after our investigation that we found that her document had a serial number from the booklet used to register the former President,” she said.

The numbers of the alleged stolen slips are 002058624 — what is under Kethi’s custody, 002058625, 002058648, 002058649 and 002058605, indicating the pattern of the numbers under one booklet.

Anomalies

IEBC also cited anomalies in Kethi’s slip, disputing her claim that she registered at Ngong Forest Primary School, as stated in her evidence.

IEBC Elections Co-ordinator for Lang’ata Constituency Ms Teresiah Wanjiru Mwai said the number on the document that Kethi produced did not match the serial number of the BVR machine stationed at Ngong Forest Primary School, which was not mobile.

She said Kethi’s document was processed from the electronic machine that was registering voters at St Mary’s Primary School, about four kilometres from the school she was quoting.

She said that while the BVR kit at Ngong Forest Primary was 00836, that of St Mary’s was 00733, which was the gadget used to register Kethi.