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.
