Senior IEBC officials could be hauled before the courts over corruption-related charges this week if Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko okays an Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission probe.
Sources at Integrity Centre said that “four or five” IEBC officials may have been singled out for prosecution over the Biometric Voter Registration tender row following months of investigations by the commission.
The officials include CEO James Oswago, finance and procurement director Edward Karisa, deputy CEO Wilson Shollei and finance manager Reuben Chirchir.
EACC boss Mumo Matemu flatly refused to comment on the possibility of the four people being arraigned in court.
“We will let you know once investigations are finalized. For now all I can tell you is that investigations are at an advanced stages,” he said.
However sources at EACC said the investigations files against the IEBC officials were complete and were waiting to be presented to Tobiko who will determine if the evidence gathered so far can sustain any charges.
The electronic voter identification (EVID) and electronic vote transmission (RTS) largely failed during the March 4 election.
The IEBC officials attributed the failure to lack of time to procure the equipment, hurried training of users and acts of omission on the part of the users like forgetting pass words and failure to charge the batteries.
The failure nevertheless created perceptions that there was a deliberate ploy to rig the polls particularly the presidential poll.
According to the sources, EACC's mandate was to investigate possible improprieties in the tendering of the equipment and forward the file to Tobiko who will authorize the prosecution.
“We cannot be categorical that we are going to charge anyone in court until we obtain the concurrence of the director of public prosecution. We must go through him in accordance with the law,” the sources explained.
However, Tobiko is less likely to veto the prosecution as his office has been involved in the investigations. It is Tobiko himself who wrote to the EACC in May asking the commission to adopt a recommendation by the Supreme Court on prosecution of IEBC staff over the BVR procurement.
"I am aware that your Commission is already undertaking investigations into allegations concerning the tender for the supply and delivery of BVR solution, kits and matching solutions.
"This is therefore to request the Commission to consider the aforementioned recommendation of the Supreme Court with the view of undertaking appropriate investigations," Tobiko had said.
Tobiko had even appointed a team of prosecution lawyers to assist the EACC in the matter. The team was headed by Kioko Kamula, a senior assistant director of public prosecutions.
“It is, indeed, likely that the acquisition process was marked by competing interests involving impropriety, or even criminality: and we recommend that this matter be entrusted to the relevant State agency, for further investigation and possible prosecution of suspects," Supreme Court judges said in their 113-page judgment on the presidential petition.
Tension has been mounting at the commission since last week when it emerged that investigations had reached the penultimate stage.
Over the weekend, Oswago started to make public what he knew about the conduct of the March 4 poll. He told the Saturday Nation that leading candidates pressured the commission prior to the March 9 declaration of official presidential results.
He also said a section of commissioners forced him to drop a verification of the vote exercise, that under age Kenyans had been registered to vote and that deputy President William Ruto had promised to deal with him.
“Uhuru Kenyatta (now President) and William Ruto (deputy President) had begun complaining that I was the one delaying the results. Ruto called the chairman and I heard him asking; ‘Why do you allow him? We will deal with him,” Oswago told Nation.
Yesterday, IEBC chairman Ahmed Issack referred queries on the investigations to the EACC.
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