Head Of Public Service Joseph Kinyua [Photo Courtesy: People daily]
The National Security Advisory Council has, in an affidavit, admitted to having sent a team to meet the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairperson Wafula Chebukati and other commissioners at The Bomas of Kenya.
In Chebukati’s response to the petition filed against him in the Supreme court, he mentioned that the National security advisory arm, in their convened meeting, wanted to tilt the presidential election results in favor of the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance Presidential Canddiate Raila Odinga.
In an affidavit on Monday, NSAC members Kennedy Kihara and Joseph Kinyua termed claims that they visited the Bomas of Kenya to try to subvert the will of the people as “unfounded and a total misrepresentation of the events of August 15, 2022.”
According to Kinyua and Kihara, their visit to the National Tallying Centre in Bomas was occasioned by the delay in the declaration of the presidential results.
“The said meeting of 15th August, 2022 was necessitated by the fact that the NSAC in the discharge of its mandate, had become seized of information to the effect that apparent delays in declaring the results of the presidential elections, and the manner in which results were being transmitted, including the stoppage of the public display of results had generated considerable public anxiety and tension and risked creating the opportunity for chaos, violence and insecurity in parts of the country,” they said in the affidavit.
NSAC added that the constitution stipulates that the results of the Presidential election had to be declared before August 16, but it was not clear whether the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and Wafula Chebukati would meet the timelines.
The response provided by the security advisory, however, denied Chebukati’s claims, noting the agenda of the meeting was pegged on security concerns after the election.