CS Matiang'i at Kenyenya Seventh Day Adventist church during the handing over of the church building which was sponsored by the Gusii professionals, May 7, 2022. /COURTESY
“This practice of hiring thugs and goons, beating politicians, and disrupting the meetings of opposition politicians—how can we proceed to an election in such an environment?. We will want to ask the IEBC what they are thinking,” the Jubilee Party Deputy Leader said.
Jubilee Party Deputy Leader Fred Matiangi has confirmed the United Opposition Alliance has a planned visit to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission on Wednesday.
Speaking during an interview on K24 TV, the former Interior Cabinet Secretary said that they intend to present what he described as urgent matters of national concern requiring immediate attention.
Key on the agenda is the authenticity of the on-going continuous voter registration where the opposition claims that non-Kenyan have been enlisted as part of wider scheme by the government to rig the 2027 General Elections.
“I have seen even international organisations have started asking questions regarding the registration of non-Kenyans here in the electoral register,” he said.
Matiangi added that they are concerned that over how the IEBC has been addressing incidents of political hooliganism.
“We have issues that are troubling us greatly, just as all Kenyans are troubled. This practice of hiring thugs and goons, beating politicians, and disrupting the meetings of opposition politicians—how can we proceed to an election in such an environment?. We will want to ask the IEBC what they are thinking,” the Jubilee Party Deputy Leader said.
Matiangi stated that they will be seeking an explanation on the handling of the contract with Smartmatic, the company that supplied the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits for the 2022 general election.
“We have been told that a contract was awarded to Smartmatic, and that contract was issued by IEBC staff before the Commission took office. We know how the issues surrounding Smartmatic have been discussed; you see what occurred in Venezuela and the US.”
“We will follow up on this matter and involve international organisations in these issues because we do not want to wait until the election to start saying that things went wrong. We learned lessons from 2022; there are things we should have addressed early if we had the capacity, and we are starting to address them early now,” said the former CS.
The United Opposition wants the IEBC terminate the contract with Carmago’s Smartmatic company, even after the IEBC extended the contract with the company in 2025. They have also called for the resignation of Hussein Marjan.
According to the United Opposition Alliance the Smartmatic system used by the commission was an instrument of electoral fraud. Capital Reporter
