IEBC gazettes seven candidates ahead of presidential repeat polls

What you need to know:

IEBC chief executive, Ezra Chiloba said in an internal Memo dated October 14 that all candidates who participated in the August 8 presidential elections were entitled to participate as candidates.
This comes after the court Thursday ordered the IEBC to include Thirdway Alliance presidential candidate Ekuru Aukot in the repeat presidential election, saying his rights had been violated by his exclusion.
Mr Chiloba said the Commission resolved that the Results Transmission System (RTS) will not be reconfigured to accommodate new presidential candidates due to time constraints.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has now gazetted seven candidates for the Fresh Presidential Election set to be held on October 26.

IEBC chief executive, Ezra Chiloba said in an internal Memo dated October 14 that all candidates who participated in the August 8 presidential elections were entitled to participate as candidates.

This comes after the court Thursday ordered the IEBC to include Thirdway Alliance presidential candidate Ekuru Aukot in the repeat presidential election, saying his rights had been violated by his exclusion.

“The court also observed that indeed all the candidates that participated in the August 8 presidential elections were entitled to participate as candidates. Accordingly, the Commission has now gazetted seven candidates for the Fresh Presidential Election,” said Mr Chiloba.

The court found that the 60- day period provided for the repeat poll would be inadequate for fresh nominations hence inclusion of all candidates would be more logical and would serve the greater public interest.

The other presidential candidates who were on the ballot this year besides Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga and Dr Aukot include: Mohamed Abduba Dida, and Cyrus Jirongo who was declared bankrupt last week. This was after the court found him (Mr Jirongo) unable to service his debts amounting to Sh700million owed to eight companies.

Other candidates included; independent candidates, Japhet Kavinga Kaluyu, Michael Wainaina Mwaura and Joseph William Nthiga Nyagah.

Mr Chiloba said the Commission resolved that the Results Transmission System (RTS) will not be reconfigured to accommodate new presidential candidates citing time constraints.

He said IEBC is exploring mechanisms to increase transparency in the results process and they would facilitate media access to all tallying centres across the county.

“We would also set up results monitoring centre accessible to candidates' agents, observes and other accredited stakeholders,” he said.