The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has subjected Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege to a full hearing over utterances she made in Vihiga County, suggesting that the Jubilee Party rigged the 2017 poll results.
This comes after IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati dismissed the objections brought before the commission’s Electoral Code of Conduct Enforcement Committee by Chege’s team of lawyers, which was led by Senior Counsels James Orengo and Otiende Amollo.
Chebukati noted that Chege’s utterances were wrong, arguing that she broke a Code of Conduct which bounds her to reassuring voters of impartiality of the electoral commission and the secrecy of the ballot.
“The respondent herein is a member of Jubilee party and a serving Woman Rep having been elected under jubilee. In the premises, the respondent is subject to the code of conduct and is under the duty to abide by the same,” he said.
Chebukati’s statement comes after Chege’s lawyers dismissed the summon by the commission noting it was not procedural. They faulted IEBC of summoning Chege without clear charges.
“We have a problem with this statement of the breach. From the charge, it is a redacted version of what Chege said. You are not telling us clearly what she is accused of saying,” Orengo argued.
Orengo further argued that the charges leveled against Chege did not amount to a breach of the Electoral Conduct as claimed by the commission hence never amounted to her summon.