Democracy for the Citizens Party Leader Rigathi Gachagua (Centre) flanked by other opposition leaders address Journalists at Anniversary Towers, Nairobi on January 28, 2026 after a meeting with IEBC.
The United Opposition on Wednesday escalated pressure on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), issuing a broad set of demands on electoral technology, security and institutional governance and warning that failure to act could trigger nationwide street protests.
After a closed-door engagement with IEBC commissioners, the opposition leaders said their concerns cut across the credibility of recent by-elections and the structural preparedness of the electoral body ahead of the 2027 General Election, painting a picture of a commission struggling to regain public trust in a politically charged environment.
“We are very unhappy with the procurement process of the Kiems kits and the discredited Smartmatic organisation, discredited worldwide,” said Kalonzo Musyoka, the party leader of the Wiper Patriotic Front, arguing that opaque technological decisions were fast becoming the biggest threat to electoral legitimacy.
Democratic party of Kenya Party leader Justin Muturi with fellow opposition leaders Rigathi Gachagua, Kalonzo Musyoka, Fred Matiang'i, Martha Karua, Eugene Wamalwa and Cleophas Malala during the National Delegates Conference for Democratic Party at Ufungamano House, Nairobi on January 28, 2026.
Beyond operational flaws, the opposition framed the IEBC as a constitutional institution drifting toward a crisis of confidence, a dangerous trajectory in a country where contested elections have historically spilled into unrest, litigation and political paralysis.
At the centre of the dispute is election technology, long a flashpoint in the country’s electoral politics. Mr Musyoka and Democratic Action Party-Kenya leader Eugene Wamalwa questioned the sourcing of electronic voter identification systems, linking them to firms facing allegations abroad and controversial deployments in the region.
“This same technology was used recently in Uganda. The KIEMS kit failed there. We do not want to see a similar election in Kenya,” Mr Wamalwa said, warning that technological opacity could quietly predetermine outcomes long before ballots are cast.
But technology, they argued, is only one layer of a deeper problem. Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, now heading the Democracy for Citizens Party, accused senior government officials and unnamed politically-connected groups of commandeering polling stations during recent by-elections, turning what should be democratic contests into zones of intimidation.
“Their goons took over polling stations. Their Cabinet Secretaries took over polling stations,” Mr Gachagua said, describing what he termed a systematic collapse of electoral security.
He warned that unless the next round of by-elections shows concrete reform and neutrality, public confrontation would be unavoidable.
“There is an option, a mass action. We hope we won’t get there,” he said.
The opposition also flagged widespread bribery, failure to prosecute election-related violence and what they described as entrenched impunity that has normalised chaos in by-elections, effectively using them as low-stakes testing grounds for manipulation ahead of national polls.
Deep dissatisfaction
Privately and publicly, leaders also expressed deep dissatisfaction with IEBC’s senior management, particularly the chief executive officer, whom they view as central to administrative weaknesses within the commission.
“We clearly are very unhappy with the CEO. We made it clear to them,” Mr Musyoka said.
In a bid to move beyond political standoffs into institutional accountability, both sides agreed to establish joint technical teams to review procurement systems, electoral laws and operational gaps — a move former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i described as necessary but overdue.
“There isn’t an issue we did not raise, procurement, security, management of by-elections, the entire election ecosystem,” Mr Matiang’i said, noting that a comprehensive public document detailing the concerns would be released.
Even mass voter registration - scheduled to begin in March - came under scrutiny, with opposition leaders warning that the timeline is too compressed to meaningfully expand the voter roll, particularly among young and economically marginalised Kenyans.
Voters queue to cast their ballot in the Magarini by-elections.
The leaders were speaking after the Democratic Party’s National Delegates Conference at Ufungamano House, where former Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi was unveiled as the party’s new leader and presidential flag bearer, a moment that doubled as a show of opposition unity.
Framing that unity as both strategic and defiant, the coalition accused President William Ruto of quietly attempting to fracture their ranks as political temperatures rise.
“We know that he is doing everything to make sure that we are not united, but we have made a decision that we will not allow that to happen,” Mr Muturi said. “If there is anyone who is going to go his way, then Kenyans will punish him heavily.”
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