Azimio Vows to Resist Attempts by President Ruto’s Camp to Remove Four IEBC Commissioners

Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition has vowed to resist any attempts by President Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza Alliance to remove the four IEBC commissioners who disowned the results of the August 9th presidential election.

Farmers Party, which is affiliated with the Kenya Kwanza Alliance, has petitioned Parliament to dismiss IEBC Vice Chairperson Juliana Cherera, and Commissioners Francis Wanderi, Justus Nyang’aya and Irene Masit for allegedly attempting to sabotage the August 9th election.

The four walked out of the national tallying centre at Bomas of Kenya on August 15th, claiming that the results the IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati was about to announce were ‘opaque.’

“The petition by Farmers Party expresses the conduct of the commissioners as being a gross violation of the constitution and a breach of their oath, which denies the 4 commissioners their legitimacy to hold the state offices as commissioners of the IEBC,” the party said.

But Azimio co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka termed attempts to oust the four IEBC members as an act of witch hunt, saying the coalition will do all it can to protect them.

"We totally condemn this brazen act of witch hunt and demand that the President and his agents, leave those officers alone. On our part we commit to do whatever it takes to protect those officers from any attempts to infringe their basic rights," Kalonzo said on Saturday.

At the same time, Musyoka castigated President Ruto’s decision to scrap the subsidy on maize flour and fuel, saying it demonstrates that Kenya Kwanza's bottom-up economic model would not be implemented by his administration.

"What a quick about turn when the ordinary Kenyan struggling to afford a meal a day, a government that can't feed our people has no business being in office," said Kalonzo.

"Why has the so-called Hustler narrative disappeared so soon? This is a mockery of the basic intelligence of the consumers and it must be seen for what it is."