DP Ruto: More than 1 million votes from my strongholds knocked off IEBC register

Deputy President William Ruto has sensationally claimed that one million registered voters in his strongholds have been removed from the roll.

This, he said, was part of a larger plot to rig the polls in August.

The DP, however, did not provide any evidence to back his claims nor did he say how he determined the places the voters came from.

“We expect that everybody who is concerned including EU to try and get as much detail as possible both from the electoral commission and these public officials on what all this is all about and how did close to a million names disappear from the register. And many of those names are from what we consider our stronghold. It is a clear attempt to try some monkey games, “ Dr Ruto said on Thursday in a breakfast meeting with European Union (EU) envoys.

DP Ruto is now demanding answers from the electoral commission and has urged other bodies such as the European Union (EU) to join the quest in ensuring free and fair elections.

 “We do not believe they will succeed but these attempts are a source of concern to Kenyans,” he added.

“We are ready to work with the electoral commission and friends to deliver credible elections.”

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has said it will put up 1.019 million voter transfers up for fresh scrutiny after complaints of Kenyans finding themselves in different polling stations, other than the one they registered in.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati has, however, rubbished claims that this means the register was tampered with.

“I want to assure that the register of voters is intact. I want to assure them that their data is safe; the register has not been breached and we shall have a final register by June 9. We had 19.6 million registered voters in 2017, and now we have 22.5 million. That register is under audit,” he said.

He, however, added: “We have cases of 166,000 people who registered more than once, but that will be removed by the end of the audit.”

During the DP’s meeting with the EU envoys, Ford-Kenya party leader Moses Wetangula also raised his concerns on the preparedness of IEBC to conduct the polls.

 “Elections are not charged free and fair on the basis of conduct on the day of voting.  It is the entire process beginning from the integrity of the voters roll, the conduct of election officials, conduct of state machinery and so on. I know EU has been a close observer and we know you will say when you feel things are not right,” he said.