Missing Mutula name puts IEBC on the spot

By BENJAMIN MUINDI bmuindi@ke.nationmedia.com AND BOB ODALO bodalo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Tuesday, July 23  2013 at  23:30

The electoral commission has ruled out printing new ballot papers for the Makueni election slated for Friday and will instead put a strip bearing the name of the Wiper candidate, Mr Mutula Kilonzo Junior.

Earlier, the elections team had rejected a petition seeking to stop Mr Kilonzo from contesting in the senatorial race and asked those behind the move to file the case at the Court of Appeal.

Later in the day, an official at the commission said they had run out of time to print fresh ballot papers after a Nairobi High Court last week allowed the Wiper Democratic Party to pick a candidate to replace Ms Kethi Kilonzo, who was disqualified over irregularities in her voter registration documents.

Sharp divisions

A source who attended Tuesday’s closed-door meeting at the commission’s offices in Nairobi, and who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said sharp divisions emerged over the move to include Mr Kilonzo’s name as a strip at the bottom of the ballot papers.

Mr Kilonzo is a brother to Ms Kilonzo. He will be seeking to capture the seat left vacant by the death of their father, Mutula Kilonzo, on April 27.

The cause of the Senator’s death is yet to be made public.

According to a source who attended Tuesday’s meeting, one Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) official said the by-election slated for Friday could not be postponed and the commission had no time to print fresh ballot papers with Mr Kilonzo’s name.

The meeting was attended by the aides of all contestants in the senatorial race including Mr John Harun Mwau (Pick), Prof Philip Kaloki (Narc), Mrs Jane Kitundu (LPK) and Mr Urbanus Katumo (an independent candidate).

Mr Kilonzo Junior, Wiper party chairman David Musila and Machakos governor Alfred Mutua also attended the meeting.

Wiper Democratic Movement last evening returned to the High Court to compel IEBC to print ballot papers with the name of its candidate for Friday’s by-election. The party said that IEBC was planning to manually superimpose its candidate’s name on ballot papers that were already printed without Mr Kilonzo’s name. The matter is scheduled for hearing this morning.

The commission had, on Tuesday, said that the issue surrounding ballot papers would be resolved before the by-election.

“We are working on this matter and we know we will quickly resolve it, IEBC chief executive James Oswago had said. “Everything will be alright.”

The reprinted ballot papers are expected in the country on Thursday. IEBC officials were unavailable to respond to our calls.

Meanwhile, Makueni County Returning Officer Salad Boru said his team was ready for the by-election after voting materials were distributed across the six constituencies in the county. “The only thing we are yet to dispatch are ballot papers because of the nature of their security,” he said.