NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 29 – All the four embattled commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Tuesday failed to appear before the National Assembly committee prosecuting their removal from office.
Through their legal counsels, each of the four commissioners were unable to defend themselves before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) seeking an adjournment for adequate preparation as they sought sufficient documentation on allegations against them.
Despite the requests, the committee declined to grant the request saying that their timelines to write the report on the quasi-judicial hearing that commenced on November 24th and that the respondents were engaging in a derailment tactic.
“Considering that in our view it appears to be a trend to delay the matter further by seeking adjournment all the time. We are not inclined to issue anymore adjournment on this matter,” chair of the committee George Murugara stated.
IEBC Vice Chair Juliana Cherera through her legal counsel Apollo Mboya had sought an extension of seven days to appear before the committee.
In a letter submitted through the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mboya decried that he lacked sufficient time to prepare a solid defense due to lack of sufficient documentation which include the Hansard of the proceedings of the committee and copies of the petition.
IEBC commissioner Julius Nyagaya through his counsel Jotham Arwa failed to defend himself due to lack of adequate guidance on how to proceed while prosecuting their defense.
Arwa stated that he had written to the Clerk of National Assembly seeking guidance on whether they will be allowed to bring witnesses before the proceeding and if IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati will be cross examined as the petitioners had relied on his affidavit.
“Guidance is what we needed before we can proceed and the guidance has just been given and so it’s not possible to proceed,” he said.
While representing commissioner Francis Wanderi, lawyer Nduru Gichamba, told MPs that he was unable to defend his client due to time constrains seeking additional time from the committee.
Gichamba stated that he lacked sufficient documentation on allegations bedeviled on his client and could therefore not proceed without the required particulars.
“If no time will be granted by this committee owing to its standing orders, then we would be unable to proceed,” he said.
The legislators however maintained that the move by the besieged commissioners to boycott the JLAC proceedings they will proceed to write a report and table the report before the House on Thursday Afternoon.
The report is supposed to guide the house on whether the four petitions have substantive grounds for the removal of the four IEBC commissioners by recommending to President William Ruto to form a tribunal to investigate them.
“The respondents are playing delaying tactics and yet they know we have timelines.We want to tell them that they will not intimidate the committee. We will write the report as is,” said Majority Whip,Sylvanus Osoro.
