On 2018-11-22, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati rejected a petition by former Kakamega senate aspirant Seth Panyako seeking his removal from office over the 2017 Kakamega senatorial election.
Chebukati said the allegations were “incurably defective” and insisted the commission acted lawfully when it gazetted the results. He maintained that the figures declared by returning officers and later published were the valid tally, not the electronic numbers on the IEBC portal.
In his response to an exclusive report carried by The Star, Chebukati also pointed to an earlier High Court case in which a similar challenge was dismissed and Panyako was fined Sh3 million.
“The High Court findings were that the complete results, relevant to the petition were the ones declared by the returning officer in form 38C and not the electronic results allegedly published on the IEBC’s portal,” Chebukati said in a statement.
He further accused Panyako of trying to blackmail the commission and said the petition was meant to stop IEBC from pursuing litigation costs owed by the petitioner.
Panyako, who serves as secretary general of the Kenya National Union of Nurses, had asked Parliament to remove Chebukati for allegedly altering the Kakamega senatorial results. His petition was received by the Clerk of the National Assembly on Monday last week and was set to go before the Justice committee.
The unionist says returning officer declared Senator Cleophas Malala the winner with 228,432 votes. He claims Chebukati then gazetted Malala at 258,178 votes, a difference of 29,746 votes.
Panyako also argues that the gap between the top two candidates was unlawfully increased to more than 59,126 votes. He accuses Chebukati of a false and malicious gazettement of the election outcome.
