The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman, Wafula Chebukati, skipped up to four paragraphs in the emotional statement he read warning of an uncertainties in the forthcoming poll.
As reported by Zipo.co.ke, the IEBC honcho claimed it would be virtually impossible to conduct a free, fair and credible election due to the current political environment, what with the hard stances taken by Jubilee and Nasa sides.
It has however emerged that during the press conference, Chebukati skipped a whole section showing the consequences of Raila Odinga’s withdrawal from the October 26 election.
Four paragraphs on page five of his statement was all about the National Super Alliance presidential candidate and the millions of votes he got in the voided August 8 poll and the consequences of him quitting the race.
“A leading candidate who garnered more that 6 million votes has withdrawn from the race. While it is his right, we must think beyond him and think of the 6 million Kenyans who will feel disenfranchised by this action. Do we just go on as if this withdrawal means nothing?” Chebukati wonders in the statement.
Chebukati gives a few examples of countries both in and outside of Africa to show where Kenya is headed after Raila dropped from the race midway. He narrates what has happened in nations where leading candidates have withdrawn from elections. According to him, the resulting effect is massive deterioration of economies.
He gave the example of Zimbabwe where Presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai dropped out of the race and the country’s economy took a dip from 5.8% to 0.7%.
“The lesson we can pick from these countries is that dismissing the withdrawal of candidates with a large number of voters does not improve the economy, political or social situation of the country. In fact, it leads to a deeper crisis,” he said.
It remains a mystery why Chebukati chose to skip that part of his statement, whether it was by design and planned to let the interested find it in the physical statement or if he changed his mind when the time came for him to read it.
