Raila demands resignation and arrest of Hassan, Chirchir and others named in 'Chicken' scam

Written By maboko on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 | 11:01 PM



The Cord coalition has called for the immediate resignation, arrest and trial of IEBC chairman Isaac Hassan, Energy CS Davis Chirchir and others allegedly involved in a Sh50 million electoral material scam.

Cord leader Raila Odinga termed the allegations “very damaging and very shameful", saying “accountability must begin at the top”, during a press conference on Tuesday.
“We demand the immediate arrest of Mr Trevy James Oyombra who is reported to have been the Kenyan making hefty payouts to Kenyan officials to influence the award of printing contracts to the UK firm. He must be sought and held to account," he said.
Raila further demanded the investigation and audit of all commissioners and principal officers of the IEBC.

He said KCB, to which money was allegedly transferred for Oyombra for onward distribution, must help the investigations and disclose how much was transferred to those implicated.
He said that those who worked at the IEBC but have since been deployed elsewhere or sacked must also be investigated.

“We demand answers on what the government knows and when they knew it. We refuse to be party to the conspiracy of silence. What is being adduced in court in London points to a serous, baffling and shameful integrity and credibility gap on the part of these present and former officers and an indictment of the Jubilee regime.

"It cannot be that Jubilee does not know what these officers did. We have an intelligence service that is required to do background checks on people before they are appointed to key public positions like that of Cabinet Secretary,” Raila added.

He said the accused who asked for “chicken” from the printing company took their corrupt ways, integrity questions and credibility gaps into an election, saying the case was similar to what happened just before independence

“We maintain that we cannot let the past and its ghosts rest. We reject the doctrine of “accept and move on” while our nation suffers. We must take charge of the future," Raila stated.
Chirchir, Gladys Shollei and James Oswago are among five former IIEC officials named for colluding with a British printing firm, Smith and Ouzman, to defraud the public coffers of the money in an ongoing case before a British court. Chirchir was then IIEC's senior manager.
Officials serving in the IIEC, that preceded the IEBC, asked for bribes to influence the awarding of a printing tender for electoral documents to Smith and Ouzman, prosecution lawyers working with forensic auditors from the UK’s Serious Fraud Unit told the Southwark Crown Court.
The others implicated in the case are suspended IEBC CEO James Oswago who served in the same capacity at the IIEC, former chief registrar of the judiciary Gladys Boss Shollei who was IIEC's Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, lawyer Kennedy Nyaundi who was a commissioner and senior procurement officer and financial director Kenneth Karani.
Trevy James Oyombra who brokered the deal between the IIEC and the printing firm was also mentioned as one of the beneficiaries of the kickbacks. Hassan is not directly mentioned in the case.
Smith and Ouzman won tenders to print ballot papers used in the 2013 General Election and Knec certificates.