Foreign powers using Raila to discredit 2017 polls – Duale

Jubilee members of parliament led by National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale have accused Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) leader Raila Odinga of attempting to interfere with the operations of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) aiming to ultimately influence the outcome of the 2017 elections.

Speaking at a press conference in Nairobi on Sunday, Duale claimed that Raila is being used by foreign powers to discredit next year’s General Election so as force a power sharing arrangement afterwards.

“Raila wants to have a disputed election and force a nusu mkate (power sharing government). The era of nusu mkate is gone,” said the National Assembly majority leader.

The Jubilee MPs further claimed that foreign countries are using donations to IEBC to plant individuals in the electoral body who will tamper with the elections technology to favour Raila Odinga.

The leaders stated that they would petition the Justice and Legal Affairs house committee to ask IEBC to avail to parliament a list of all IEBC donors for vetting.

The Jubilee legislators pointed at one Mr Micheal Yard, an American whom they claim has been in and out of the country masquerading as a Canadian.

According to the MPs, Mr Yard was responsible for the failure of the elections transmission system in 2013 and is being used by foreign powers to institute a regime change in Kenya in the 2017 elections.

“He is part of the team being used by foreigners to influence the polls next year and make Raila a puppet president,” said Duale.

The Jubilee coalition legislators further accused the opposition leader of micro managing the process of selecting the IEBC commissioners.

They challenged him (Raila) to choose between being an electoral referee and a player, accusing him of running the previous electoral commissions out of office.

“He hounded out of office the Kivuitu commission and recently the Hassan commission,” noted Duale.

(Written by Moses Ngugi)