Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition Party Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga was on Sunday, cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission IEBC to run for the August 9, general polls.
Raila together with his running mate Martha Karua was cleared by the Commission's chairman Chairman Wafula Chebukati.
Speaking after his clearance, Raila urged IEBC to live by the script and do what the people of Kenya expect of the commission.
He went ahead to raise ten issues his team wants the IEBC to address before the August 9, general polls.
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Raila questioned whether the commission had put in place measures to ease the electronic Identification of voters and transmission of results from the polling stations to the National Tallying Center in Nairobi.
"There are a few issues I want to raise with you Mr. Chairman. One is the Electronic Identification of voters and transmission of results. Has the commission devolved the results transmission part for the polling stations to the National Tallying center?" posed Raila
He also went ahead to question when the IEBC is going to share all the set protocols with all presidential candidates and parties.
The second issue that Raila raised is the Security of the voter register. He questioned the status of the voter register on a county by county and constituency by constituency basics.
The former Prime Minister's also inquired about the Audit of the Voters Register.
"I the preliminary report by the audit firm ready? if so, what are the preliminary findings? When is the draft report of the final audit of the register expected?" posed Raila.
The fourth issue raised by Odinga is the proposal to amend elections general regulations which are currently before parliament.
In the proposals, a Presiding Officer will be allowed to open the ballot box that had been sealed to remove wrongly put materials at the constituency tallying center.
The Recruitment of Returning Officers question was also raised. Raila said IEBC commissioners amended the laws to allow them to nominate Constituency Returning officers, County Returning officers, and Presiding Officers and their deputies without sharing their details with political parties and Independent candidates as required by the law
The sixth issue is the information about the printing of ballot papers. He inquired about measures put in place to ensure there are no lapses or logistical issues and security to the general elections.
He also inquired about the Smartmatic contract. "Which measures has the commission taken to reduce or eliminate the risks that could affect the functioning of the election's technology?
He also inquired about the technical issues. "When is the commission intending to carry out end-to-end testing of its technology functionality before the polls?" he also paused
The Azimio presidential candidate also inquired about stakeholder engagement. He questioned the measures and steps that the commission had taken to address the systemic inadequacies identified by the Supreme court in 2017.
"Finally, what is the status of compliance with statutory timelines released by the Commission on 17th January 2022?" he posed.
In a rejoinder, Chebukati promised to address all the issues raised by Odinga in writing.
