The four beleaguered electoral agency commissioners now want President William Ruto to explain how he concluded that they were 'rogue officials '.
In a letter drafted by their lawyer Apollo Mboya and addressed to President Ruto, the breakaway Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioners Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Irene Masit and Justus Nyang'aya said they were only participating in ongoing Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) hearings against them if the head of state responds to their request.
"The said tweet which we deem to have nexus to the petition before the Honourable Departmental Committee...In order for us to participate fully in the proceedings before the Departmental Committee and taking into account that the process may very well culminate in you appointing a tribunal, this is to request that you provide us further and better particulars forming the conclusions made in your tweet that (a)the activities, conduct or actions of the officials that make the official rogue, and (b) that the activities, conduct or actions of the said officials that subverted the democratic will of the people," Mr Mboya, acting on the behalf of the four commissioners said in a letter dated November 28, 2022.
Four petitioners want the four commissioners kicked out of the IEBC for rejecting the presidential election results announced by commission chairman Wafula Chebukati on August 15, 2022, declaring Dr Ruto the winner of the hotly contested elections against his main challenger Mr Raila Odinga.
President Ruto’s tweet on the four commissioners read: “The lords of impunity, who destroyed oversight institutions using the handshake fraud, should allow Parliament to hold rogue officials who put the nation in danger by subverting the democratic will of the people to be held to account.”
Mr Mboya told the committee that on November 25, 2022, a tweet from President Ruto aimed at the four commissioners, implied that he has already judged them and that the House committee could be engaged in a matter whose outcome is already predetermined.
On Tuesday, Azimio's Parliamentary Group meeting attended by Mr Odinga, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, DAP-K patron Eugene Wamalwa and Kanu Executive Director George Wainaina resolved that the JLAC hearings against the four IEBC commissioners are a "lynch mob, a hired hit squad and an illegality with a predetermined position."
The group will from December 7 be having public engagements across the country in solidarity with the four commissioners.
