Cherera wanted Ruto’s votes reduced by 233,211 to force re-run: Guliye claims in affidavit

IEBC Commissioner Prof. Abdi Yakub Guliye has filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court claiming that the agency Vice Chairperson Juliana Cherera wanted President-elect William Ruto’s votes reduced to force a re-run.

Guliye, in the affidavit responding to Raila Odinga’s petition challenging the presidential poll results, alleged that Cherera wanted to subvert the people’s choice by slashing Ruto’s votes by 233,211 so that neither of the two leading presidential candidates managed to secure the 50% plus one threshold.

He revealed that on the day of the announcement, IEBC CEO Marjan Hussein handed over the final results – in which Ruto had emerged victor - to the other commissioners but four of them; including Cherera, Justus Nyang'aya, Irene Masit and Francis Wanderi, objected to the same.

“Commissioners Masit and Wanderi were of the view that the results should be pushed towards a re-run, which in their view would be a 'win-win' situation to which I exclaimed "how?". Vice Chair Cherera suggested that the margin is not too big and could be manipulated by moving 233,211 votes from Hon Ruto to the rejected ballots category,” stated Guliye.

“Having heard the views of all the Commissioners, the Chairman indicated that he would not discuss subversion of the will of the people and that he would announce and declare the final results in accordance with the verified tallies.”

He further cited an earlier meeting between all the IEBC commissioners and a delegation from the National Security Advisory Committee (NSAC) that allegedly wanted them to either announce Raila Odinga as winner of the presidential election or ensure there is a run-off.

According to Guliye, the four commissioners led by Vice Chair Cherera were in favour of the NSAC team’s recommendation while he and Chebulati refused.

“…we walked out of the meeting room and headed towards the auditorium where I was to announce the results of the remaining 27 constituencies before the Chairman could make the final declaration. The results of those constituencies had already been verified in the presence of agents of the candidates and included in the final tally in Form 34C,” stated Guliye.

“…before I could read the results from the remaining Constituencies, some fracas ensued. In the circumstances, I would not be able to announce the results of the remaining 27 results and neither would the Chairman be able to declare the final results. We went back to the holding room. I was injured in the melee. When calm was restored, the Chairman declared the final results in the midst of chaos and consequently could not go through all the County summations but nonetheless indicated the availability of the forms.”