NASA leader Raila Odinga has said the opposition outfit isn’t ready to take part in the fresh election on the 17th October, due to key issues not being solved. While addressing the press at Wilson Airport in Nairobi, he said IEBC didn’t consult stakeholders before announcing the election date, “The electoral commission didn’t see it fit to consult stakeholders before announcing the date of elections. Earlier on the commission had sent a message to us saying they wanted consultations between us and Jubilee concerning the election date. That didn’t happen and instead Matiang’i made a proposed date announcement citing exams timeline,” said Raila, adding that the decision was mainly a Jubilee decision, and not a decision made by IEBC.
The NASA presidential candidate also reiterated that some IEBC commissioners shouldn’t be given the responsibility to conduct elections, “The commission as is currently constituted should not conduct this election because it has been found wanting in terms of conduct in the just concluded polls. A number of officials from the commission should be sent home, some should be investigated and prosecuted for the heinous crime they committed.” He said that the names of the officials who are culpable for the malpractices are known.
He pointed out another unsolved issue was access to the IEBC servers and they didn’t honor the Court’s order. He said according to the law, the technology system, including servers and transaction logs, used by IEBC should be accessible to everyone, mostly stakeholders. He said as NASA, they can’t take part in the polls if their needs aren’t addressed given that they don’t want the same mistakes to be repeated twice, “We are not ready to participate in the elections on the 17th October without legal and constitutional guarantees. We can’t make the same mistakes twice and expect different results, and we know well what transpired,” he said.