Azimio la Umoja One Kenya alliance leader Raila Odinga has insisted that reinstating dissenting Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioners must form the basis of his negotiations with president William Ruto.
Speaking on Tuesday night February 28, 2023, during an interview on KTN, Raila insisted that the four former IEBC commissioners must be reinstated with full benefits.
The Azimio leader was responding to a question about what it would take him to sit down and talk to Ruto amid ongoing anti-government rallies.
“There is no basis for talking right now because he is insisting that he is elected he is moving ahead. We have told him certain things for example we have said the electoral commission is the referee in an election it cannot be appointed by one side at all. There must be negotiations on how to do it. And we have also said that the way things are, the kind of mess that we went through we need to now actually look at the electoral commission afresh and see how to restructure it even to decentralise it so that you have got units at the counties responsible for tallying and announcement of results,” Raila said.
He added that;
“He (Ruto) is not ready for talks. You see also the other four now condemned commissioners whose terms had not even ended. Those four commissioners must be reinstated with full benefits. We must sit down and talk about the electoral commission as stakeholders.”
The four commissioners led by former vice chairperson Juliana Cherera said they couldn’t take ownership of the presidential results because of the opaque nature of the final verification of the results.
Cherera disowned the results alongside Justus Nyang’aya, Irene Masit and Francis Wanderi.
Cherera, Nyang’aya and Wanderi resigned in the wake of their suspension and the formation of a tribunal to investigate their conduct in the August 9, 2022, General Election.
The three resigned leaving Masit, who stood her ground claiming that she was innocent of the allegations pressed against her.
The Justice Aggrey Muchelule tribunal on Monday, February 27, 2023, recommended her removal from office.
In a report, Muchelule said the accusations against her and her fellow commissioners were proven.
