Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Kalonzo: TNA deleted Kethi’s name from roll

PHOTO | FILE Ms Kethi Kilonzo addresses a rally in Wote, Makueni before her nomination as the Cord candidate for the county’s senatorial seat was revoked.
PHOTO | FILE Ms Kethi Kilonzo addresses a rally in Wote, Makueni before her nomination as the Cord candidate for the county’s senatorial seat was revoked. Former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka accused TNA of tampering with the voters’ register to delete her name.  NATION MEDIA GROUP
By LUCAS BARASA lbarassa@ke.nationmedia.com AND ANGIRA ZADOCK zangira@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Tuesday, July 9   2013 at  23:30
Former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka has accused TNA of deleting Ms Kethi Kilonzo’s name from the voters’ register, locking her out of the Makueni by-election.
“TNA is IEBC and IEBC is TNA. TNA must have tampered with the voter register, hence deleting Kethi’s name,” Mr Musyoka told a press conference in Nairobi on Tuesday.
Ms Kilonzo had been cleared by the Wiper Democratic Party, which Mr Musyoka leads, to vie for the Makueni senatorial seat left vacant by the death of her father, Mutula Kilonzo.
Wiper Democratic Party is allied to Cord which lost the March 4 General Election to the Jubilee Alliance. The alliance comprises The National Alliance (TNA) and the United Republican Party (URP). TNA is led by President Uhuru Kenyatta while URP is led by Deputy President William Ruto.
Mr Musyoka said TNA was working with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to lock out Ms Kilonzo from the senatorial race slated for July 22.
“Of concern is the manner in which TNA, a major player in the Jubilee Coalition, raised the issue of Kethi’s voter registration status without the knowledge of the electoral body, begging the question of who is the custodian of the IEBC vote register,” he said.
However, TNA secretary general Onyango Oloo denied the claims and told Cord to carry its own cross.
“No scape-goat, no blame game will clean Wiper and Cord’s act of trying to hoodwink Kenyans that its candidate presented a legal document for clearance to vie for the seat,” Mr Oloo said in a telephone interview.
He said TNA has no business interfering with the will of Kenyans.
They are former MP Philip Kaloki (Narc), Mr Urbanus Katumo Muthoka (an independent candidate), Jane Wavinya Muoka (Labour Party of Kenya) and Mr John Harun Mwau (Pick).
Commission chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan also gazetted 125 polling centres in Makueni County ahead of the by-election.
Mr Hassan’s notice is dated July 8, the same day the IEBC tribunal ruled on Ms Kilonzo’s eligibility case.
On Tuesday, Mr Musyoka said Cord would go to court to challenge the ruling of the IEBC tribunal which disqualified Ms Kilonzo from vying after the slip she used to get her nomination was judged to have been stolen.
“This is a major political war against Cord, disguised as a legal battle,” Mr Musyoka said.
One of the lawyers representing Wiper, Mr Daniel Maanzo, said Cord would go to the high court on Wednesday to seek to nullify the gazette notice detailing the candidates.
“I think they rushed to gazette the names to block us from appealing. However, we will seek prayers to nullify the gazettement,” Mr Maanzo said. “It appears IEBC, the courts and the executive are working together but let’s hear what the courts will say.”
Meanwhile, IEBC has written to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to investigate the loss of the voter registration slip at the centre of the controversy.
IEBC chairman Isaac Hassan on Tuesday confirmed that the commission had formally contacted the detectives to investigate how Ms Kilonzo acquired an acknowledgement slip indicating that she was a registered voter.
“Yes it is true I have written to the CID so that they can commence investigations into that matter,” he said.
On Monday, the IEBC tribunal ruled that Ms Kilonzo was not a registered voter and locked her out of the Makueni Senate by-election after she had been given a direct nomination by the Wiper Democratic Party.
The IEBC Dispute Resolution Committee had recommended that her voter registration acknowledgement slip be investigated. The committee, chaired by commissioner Thomas Letangule, had revoked her nomination for the Makueni senatorial race, and made said that the slip she had used to secure her nomination was stolen from a booklet in which only one other slip had been used to register retired president Mwai Kibaki.
The director of voter registration and electoral operations at IEBC, Ms Immaculate Kassait, had claimed that the slip was one of five missing from the booklet and the matter was already under investigation.
CID boss Ndegwa Muhoro on Tuesday said that he would name a team to investigate the theft allegations.
If detectives find that the slip was stolen, it could have devastating criminal consequences on Ms Kilonzo who has maintained that the slip was officially issued to her during registration last year.
Police say that possible charges would include stealing, handling stolen property or forgery.

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