IEBC commissioner IEBC Irene Massit has filed her replying affidavit to the presidential election petition presented at the Supreme Court.
Behind the petition is Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua who are seeking to have president-elect William Ruto's win overturned owing to alleged electoral fraud on the part of the IEBC.
In her response to the petition, Masit said Chebukati solely transacted business with the three Venezuelan nationals who were to deploy election material ahead of the August 9 polls.
She says that Chebukati sideline the commissioners while engaging the trio who were arrested at the JKIA in July, a few weeks to the polls.
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According to Masit, who has been listed as the eighth respondent to the petition, Chebukati exercised absolute powers through his failure to consult the other stakeholders in the commission.
"It is not by surprise that in the month of July, 2022 when the nation was struck by the news of Venezuela nations Salvador Javier Sosa Suarez, Joel Gustavo Rodriguez Garcia and Jose Grecorio Castellanos, a matter that is now in the public domain, arrested having arrived in the country with election materials none of the commissioners was aware of their coming nor possession of election materials but the chairman, Wafula Wanyonyi Chebukati,” she said in her affidavit.
She adds that;
"The chairperson indeed went out public to defend the foreign nationals when the commission did not even expect election materials at the time thereby depicting the true person of the chairperson of the IEBC singly usurping the powers of the Commission albeit illegally and unconstitutionally,"
He response by and large seconded the one by vice chair Juliana Cherera who accused Chebukati of being unilateral and heading the commission without considering the input of other commissioners.
Cherera, Masit, Francis Wanderi and Justus Nyang'aya form the dissenting team that disowned the presidential results citing opaqueness in the manner the final tally was done.
