Restore trust in IEBC, Muthama tells Uhuru, Ruto

Restore trust in IEBC, Muthama tells Uhuru, Ruto

Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama has warned that the CORD coalition will not allow rigging in the 2017 General Election.

Speaking at a funeral ceremony in Tala, Muthama asked President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto to ensure that they restore the trust and confidence of Kenyans on the ability of the electoral body IEBC to conduct elections.

The senator further accused IEBC of being influenced by Jubilee top leaders to reject CORD’s Okoa Kenya referendum initiative.

His sentiments were echoed by Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula, who called for the disbandment of IEBC.

The statements come hot in the heels of a press release from the CORD Secretariat on Saturday over the “cavalier manner in which IEBC continues to treat the critical matter of the Okoa Kenya popular initiative to amend the constitution”.

In the statement, signed by CORD’s Chief Executive Officer Norman Magaya, the opposition said this had confirmed the coalition’s views that the country will not go into another election with IEBC as currently constituted.

“The mandate of the Commission on a popular referendum initiative is set out under article 257(4) of the constitution and the commissioned is only enjoined to verify that the initiative is supported by at least one million registered voters,” read the statement.

“The upshot of it is that IEBC has no authority to declare that the referendum initiative has collapsed. The faster they wake up from this slumber the better for them. We will, beginning next week, embark on unprecedented plan of action to reclaim our sovereign power and propel the much-needed reforms that the Okoa Kenya Constitutional Amendment Bill envisages, frther read the statement.

Five days ago, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) threw out the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy’s (CORD) Okoa Kenya referendum push, saying CORD had failed to achieve the one million registered voter support threshold as only 891,598 supported the initiative.

The IEBC, during its 142nd Plenary Meeting held Tuesday, adopted the report on the verification of signatures of registered voters in support of the proposed constitutional amendment presented by OKOA Kenya Initiative.

Tags:

CORD kenya IEBC bungoma President Uhuru Kenyatta Wetangula Deputy President William Ruto Okoa Kenya Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula machakos Muthama Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama OKOA Kenya Initiative

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