Gov’t to enforce IEBC’s 400m radius directive: Kibicho

Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho on Thursday assured Kenyans that the security agencies will enforce electoral commission’s directive that only authorized persons will be allowed in polling stations on Tuesday.

Dr Kibicho said unauthorized people should stay within a 400m radius of polling stations as directed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries  Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati.

The principal secretary further noted that anyone who violates the directive will face the law, urging Kenyans to allow other voters to carry out their democratic vote next Tuesday.

Dr Kibicho was also echoing a similar directive issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta for Kenyans to “cast their vote and go home.”

Already, activist Okiya Omtatah  has sued the IEBC, demanding the order to be lifted on grounds that it is illegal and unconstitutional with the electoral agency and the Attorney-General Githu Muigai names as the first and second respondents respectively.

The Interior PS, who was addressing journalists at the Kenya International Convention Centre flanked by Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Samuel Arachi and Government Spokesperson Eric Kiraithe, lauded politicians for ensuring peace prevailed during the electioneering period which ends on Saturday, August 5th, two days before the elections.

“I am proud to say that today being the fourth day to the election, the country is at peace and I thank the politicians for carrying and conducting themselves well in the campaigns that will end on Saturday,” said Dr Kibicho.

On Wednesday, President Kenyatta ordered the security agencies to boost security for presidential candidates and provide protection to all the 290 constituency returning officers, a plan that was adopted by the security bosses.

The president’s directive was issued days after the brutal killing of the IEBC’s ICT manager in charge of election results transmission whose body was found dumped in Muguga Forest in Kikuyu, Kiambu County alongside that of a female friend, Maryanne Carol Ngumbu.

Autopsies conducted on their bodies have shown the two were strangled to death, one with bare hands and the other with a rope.

The killers have not yet been traced nor the motive discovered even thought the killing sent chilling shock waves among Kenyans with just a few days to the election.