A deputy presiding officer in Kisumu has been arrested for allegedly planning to rig the polls slated for Tuesday, August 9, 2022.
The temporary employee of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) terms is currently being held at Ahero police station in Nyando Sub-county as police continue with investigations.
According to Nyando Sub-county Returning Officer Maurice Simiyu, the suspect who was not neutral was trying to persuade another presiding officer to tally results in favour of one candidate.
“The suspect was captured in an audio recording trying to persuade another presiding officer to tally votes in favour of a certain candidate,” Simiyu said.
The official stated that the nature of the persuasion was to favour another candidate to make sure that he doesn’t indicate votes for his opponent.
The suspect was handed over to the detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) where he is recording a statement.
“Consequently, I have also fired him from participating in the entire election activities,” he said.
He also added that replacement was done immediately to fill the gap and to allow everything to run smoothly in the Tuesday polls.
“We were dispatching the presiding officers together with the materials. We had already briefed them and they had already taken their lunch so they were confirming their materials and were waiting for security,” Simiyu revealed.
