IEBC explains grounds for rejecting Okoa Kenya signatures

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has come out to clarify grounds upon which some of the Okoa Kenya signatures were rejected.

In a statement signed by IEBC Communications Manager Tabitha Mutemi, the commission clarified that it did not verify the authenticity of the signatures presented by CORD to back their OKOA Kenya referendum bid, but instead cross-checked them against the voters’ register.

“The Commission did not reject a single signature because of its structure or formation. The records that were rejected were those that were not found in the voters register. Some records had signatures but without ID or passport numbers while others had just names and no other entries,” read the statement in part.

The commission says it allowed any mark as a legitimate intention or consent by whoever signed for the Okoa Kenya initiative.

In a quick rejoinder, CORD rubbished IEBC’s clarification terming it baffling and inconsistent with its earlier communication.

“It is the reason IEBC last week specifically drew the attention of the media to those parts of the books that had unique signatures including drawings,” read the statement from Raila Odinga’s spokesman Dennis Onyango.

“At that time, IEBC was working with a very limited and preconceived definition of signature. In its usual confusion it is now trying to backtrack.”

“This is typical of IEBC.  In IEBC everything is always shifting. But for CORD our decision is made. No matter what it says now, IEBC has to be disbanded. If it does not do so on its own we will force it to be disbanded.”