Chebukati to know his ‘result verification role’ on Tuesday

The Supreme Court will deliver its ruling on IEBC chairperson, Wafula Chebukati’s mandated roles on Tuesday, next week.

Chebukati had on October 5, filed a case at the Supreme Court seeking interpretation on his role in the verification of Forms 34A in the fresh presidential election scheduled for October 26.

The chair based his quest on the Maina Kiai case where the Court of Appeal ruled that he cannot; correct, vary, confirm, alter, modify or adjust results transmitted to the Bomas of Kenya from the constituency level.

Through lawyer, Kamau Karori, the electoral commission says that they premeditated a scenario where Chebukati would be obliged to declare results in the event there is a discrepancy in result declaration forms.

“According to this court’s ruling on 20^th September, the chair is supposed to compare results before declaring results. But in the event of verifying the forms, what is the way forward in the event that the Forms 34A and Forms 34B have not matched? What is the chair of IEBC supposed to do in this case… will he go on to declare results even when he knows there is a discrepancy in the results declaration forms?”Argued IEBC Lawyer, Kamau Karori.

The National Super Alliance (NASA), however, says that the law is very clear in the matter, insisting that there is nothing to clarify in the Maina Kiai case as the “Court of Appeal extensively dealt with the issue”. The opposition adds that if IEBC had faithfully read through the appellate court ruling, they would not have sought clarification for guidance.

“There is no law that bars the chairperson from being the petitioner. If s/he finds that results in the declaration forms do not match, as is expected, then s/he should go to the court and say I cannot declare these presidential results because some of the result declaration forms didn’t match at all,” said NASA lawyer, Willis Otieno.

IEBC wants to know which results between tallies contained in the Forms 34B submitted to the national tallying center by returning officers and Forms 34A should be used to declare presidential election results.

Additionally, he also wants the Supreme Court to clarify whether the electoral agency and the chairperson can correct errors identified in Forms 34B or amend Forms 34A where results differ.