IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati Appoints Deputy National Returning Officer

Consolata Nkatha Maina, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Vice Chairperson has been appointed as Deputy National Returning Officer for Thursday's fresh presidential election.

In a letter signed by electoral commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati on Tuesday, IEBC said it had appointed Consolata Maina to conduct the repeat poll. The appointment comes after the commission held a series of meetings with various stakeholders in the last few days including President Uhuru Kenyatta and National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga.

Nkatha will assist Chebukati in his mandate of receiving, collating and verifying the results from over 40,000 polling stations. The appointment also means she can declare the final presidential election results in case the Chairman is absent.

This comes even as the Supreme Court is on Wednesday scheduled to hear and determine a petition filed by three voters seeking to have the October 26th repeat election postponed to a later date.