At least 26 cases of alleged voter bribery incidences were encountered by elections monitoring teams in 6 Counties including Busia, Garissa, Wajir, Meru, Nyamira, and Machakos, according to a report by EACC.
Confirming the incidences the chairperson of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission former Archbishop Eliud Wabukala said the Commission is pursuing two cases, and at least 7 cases were handled by police, one case was referred to the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government and 16 other case were pursued but remained unsubstantiated on various accounts.
“In Machakos county Mavoko Constituency, an aspirant was observed using a state Corporation vehicle in a polling station and the Commission is following up on this matter,” he noted.
The EACC Chair also noted that there were complaints from voters in various polling centeres on procedural irreguralities which tended to slow the polling exercise.
The Commission however observed that the entire electoral process was undertaken to a large extent in a peaceful, open, transparent manner across the country.
“We appreciate that the voter turn out was impressive, going by the statistics given by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission,” he quipped.
The commission has advised particularly the Governors who will be sworn starting on Thursday 17th August to ensure their accountability mechanisms are established and strengthened in their respective public entities.
He urged those who lost and wish to challenge the results to do so through the laid down constitutional procedures.
“We cannot afford to see the country degenerate to lawlessness on account of contesting electoral outcomes when there are clearly laid down procedures through the justice system,” he affirmed, while at the same time urging elected leaders to uphold integrity and deal with corruption, “We appeal to the incoming leaders to uphold integrity and put in place measures to curb theft of public resources. It should be a new beginning with the new governments where corruption becomes a thing of the past.”
EACC promised to give all the necessary support to the country Governments to enable them to succeed in enhancing good governance for benefit of the people of Kenya.