Dr Roselyn Akombe Resigns As Commissioner of the IEBC

IEBC commissioner Dr Roselyn Akombe on Tuesday resigned her position in the commission, with the October 26th repeat election only nine days away.

“For many months, I have questioned my role as a Commissioner at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. But I have soldiered on hoping that we could collectively find a way of address the crisis our country faces today,” Akombe wrote in a statement.

In her resignation letter, Dr Akombe said that she resigned as a result of frustration from commissioners of the IEBC who go to meetings ready to vote along partisan lines and lack of preparedness of the commission to carry out a credible repeat election given the various instructions that keep on changing in terms of technology and electronic transmission of results.

She also said the the IEBC staff in various parts of the country is being threatened, and in some cases the officers on the ground have not been well trained because of intimidation from protestors.

“I shared detailed reports from staff in four of the Counties most hit hard by  the ongoing protests - Nairobi, Siaya, Kisumu and Home Bay - with the hope that this will bring sobriety to decision making. Instead that was met with more extremist responses from most Commissioners, who are keen to have an election even if it is at the cost of the lives of our staff and voters. It is unacceptable for any party to disrupt, attack and injure our staff in Mumias, Bungoma, Homabay, Siaya, and Kisumu as they did today. These acts must be condemned by all and action taken against the perpetrators,” she added.

Last week, Akombe was in Nyanza and the Western region to plan how the commission would train election officers to handle poll.

“The Commission in its current state can surely not guarantee a credible election on 26 October 2017. I do not want to be party to such a mockery to electoral integrity,” added the statement from Akombe.

Akombe had been expected to lead a delegation to Dubai to monitor the printing of ballots for repeat poll by Al Ghurair.

There has been wide speculation since the Supreme Court nullified the August 8th general election that Akombe was contemplating resigning from the commission, but she has on several occasions dismissed those claims.