Why President Ruto is now hesitant to probe 2022 election intrigues at Bomas

President William Ruto is now expressing hesitation over a pledge by his administration to set up a Commission of Inquiry into the August presidential election whose announcement of results was rocked by ugly scenes at the Bomas of Kenya amid divisions among IEBC Commissioners.

President Ruto says there was an attempt to overturn the election results; an attempt he says roped in elements of the military.

Upon being sworn into office just over three months ago, President Ruto pledged to form a Commission of Inquiry to investigate what he described as state capture, with particular attention to the alleged attempt to overturn the August presidential election results.

However, three months later, speaking in an interview with six television stations, President Ruto sounded hesitant saying his administration has other more immediate priorities.

“I want to promise you the story of Bomas will be told one day… We will establish a commission one day, if you were to sit where am sitting you will know why I am going slow on certain things to get out of the mess we are in,” said Ruto.

But even before the promised formation of a Commission of Inquiry, President Ruto’s administration has already purged three out of four IEBC Commissioners that had disowned the election results that gave the president victory in August.

Commissioners Juliana Cherera, Justus Nyangaya and Francis Wanderi have already resigned from the IEBC while commissioner Irene Masit has opted to face the tribunal chaired by Justice Aggrey Muchelule.

President Ruto now alleges that the country's military was roped into the election scheme that was supposed to deny him the presidency in favor of his opponent and Azimio One Kenya candidate Raila Odinga.

“The events of August 15th were horrible because even the military, a sacred institution, was roped into the scheme to sabotage the will of the people of Kenya because of the State capture menace,” said Ruto.

In the interview, President Ruto told a joint panel of journalists that there are untold stories surrounding the announcement of the presidential results on the 15th of August last year that only IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati is in a position to tell.

“If Chebukati were to tell you the kind of hell he went through if the day a story of 15th August can be told, you will know why am delaying... now I have to balance between sorting out the economy or do I swing this big thing that will drain our energy...,” said the President

Though keen to keep the idea of a Commission of Inquiry alive, President Ruto gave no indication when indeed such a commission would be put in place only saying “he has had to go slow.”