The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was on the receiving end of a barrage of insults by many Kenyans.
The bone of contention was the Data Report of 2017 General Elections which the commission uploaded online on May 16.
Despite having 3 years coupled with experts to draft up the document, Kenyans immediately spotted an astonishing number of mistakes that were inexplicable.
Take the Dagoretti South Parliamentary election results as outlined in the fresh report. The incumbent legislator John Kiarie aka KJ is listed as an independent candidate who came in second with 12,708 votes.
According to the data from the infamous IEBC servers, KJ, as he is popularly known, was trumped by Dennis Kariuki who garnered 55,675 votes under a Jubilee Party ticket.
The late Kibra MP Kenneth Okoth was also a loser in the 2017 elections according to IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati’s report, having garnered a paltry 5,996 votes as an independent candidate.
ODM Party’s Judah Martin Oduor was the victor in that particular contest with 66,914 votes if the latest report is anything to go by.
In what was the most shocking reveal yet, current Muhoroni MP James Onyango K’Oyoo was not even in the list of candidates, with the winner declared as ODM Party’s Francis Ogot Ong’elle with 50,080 votes.
Vocal Suba North Millie Odhiambo Mabona, an ODM party member, vied under Amani National Congress Party in Mbita Constituency according to IEBC’s latest report on the 2017 General Elections.
The report was ridded with errors that resurrected the vifaranga vya computer monicker.
ODM Party leader Raila Odinga coined the term while lamenting that the August 8, results were computer-generated, a grievance that went all the way to the Supreme Court leading to a nullification of the presidential poll.
“Supreme Court it is. We must reject Vifaranga vya Computer,” he remarked at the time.
Chebukati’s tenure at the head of the commission has been riddled with controversy and scandals.
The most infamous one being a leaked memo by the IEBC chairman to the Chief Executive Officer at the time, Ezra Chiloba.
The terse memo directed the CEO, among other things, to take action against two officials behind the creation of a username and a password in Chebukati’s name and which was used to log into the commission’s system 9,934 times.
Following the ridicule received by IEBC on social media platforms, the link that directed users to the 3-year-long report no longer works, and users are only directed to a ‘Not Found’ error page.
