On 21 November 2018, trade unionist Seth Panyako lodged a petition seeking the removal of IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati over the handling of Kakamega Senate election results in the 2017 polls.
The petition was received by the Clerk of the National Assembly on Monday the previous week and was expected to be taken up by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee. Committee chair John Cheptumo said the lawmakers would first determine whether the complaint had merit before deciding the next step.
“This is a serious issue. The committee will decide whether there is merit in the petition or not and how best to deal with it,” Cheptumo said.
Panyako, who serves as the General Secretary of the Kenya National Union of Nurses, says Chebukati unlawfully changed the Kakamega Senate results after the Returning Officer had already declared the outcome.
According to the petition, Cleophas Malala was initially declared winner with 228,432 votes, while Panyako, who ran on an ODM ticket, got 198,602 votes in the six-candidate race. Panyako alleges that Chebukati later gazetted a different figure for Malala, raising it to 258,178 votes without explanation.
He argues that the increase of 29,746 votes, and the widening of the margin between the top two candidates to more than 59,126, was illegal and had no basis in the returning officer’s declaration. The petition further claims that Chebukati acted without authority by altering results that should only have been changed by a court order.
Panyako says the chairman’s conduct amounted to a compromised election and violated Articles 38, 86 and 75 of the Constitution. He wants Parliament to invoke Article 251 and write to the President to establish a tribunal that would remove Chebukati from office.
The petition came amid a difficult period for the IEBC chair. Chebukati had already faced criticism from politicians and former colleagues, while a High Court ruling had upheld his position and the legality of the commission after four commissioners resigned.
He was also under pressure inside the commission after the Supreme Court nullified the August presidential election. Jubilee leaders had pushed to have his then deputy, Connie Maina, positioned as National Returning Officer in case Chebukati stepped aside. At the same time, Chebukati had clashed with staff, including former CEO Ezra Chiloba, whom he asked to step aside and allow a new team to run the elections.
Earlier in February, three commissioners — Connie Maina, Margaret Mwachanya and Paul Kurgat — resigned jointly and said they had no confidence in Chebukati’s leadership. A court audit report presented the following month also highlighted failures at the electoral commission, including inflated costs, management problems, turf wars and fraud by staff.
This was the second petition in 2018 targeting Chebukati’s removal. In April, former presidential hopeful Peter Gichira asked Parliament to oust him, accusing him of violating Article 47 by refusing to receive his nomination signatures despite a court order directing the commission to accept the papers.
