The hearing of petitions seeking to oust embattled Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Irene Masit came to an end on Monday after the counsels representing both parties made their final submissions.
In the hearing, the IEBC was seeking to dismiss commissioner Irene Massit from the commission due to gross violation of the Constitution following her conduct in the August 2022 General Election.
The Justice Aggrey Muchelule-led tribunal, which was probing the matter, will now retreat to make recommendations on Masit’s fate to President William Ruto who is the appointing authority.
Justice Mucheule made his final remarks saying that the counsels representing the two parties, Peter Munge (IEBC) and Donald Kipkorir (Masit), will not be expected to make any further submissions in regard to the probe.
Lawyer Munge on his part, said that there is apparent evidence from the witnesses who testified before the tribunal to oust commissioner Masit and that Lawyer Kipkorir lacks concrete evidence to prove her innocent.
He added that Masit did not present any witness in her submissions and did not challenge any allegations made against her.
“They saw what happened and they collaborated with each other in terms of the allegations we have presented. The wise thing would have been for the commissioner to take the witness stand and give her rebuttal. She did not,” he stated.
Lawyer Kipkorir told the tribunal that if indeed the witnesses – former IEBC commissioners Abdi Guliye, Boya Molu, chairman Wafula Chebukati and CEO Hussein Marjan – were part and parcel of the events that led to the probe then they too should be held accountable.
“Commissioners Chebukati and Marjan are the key accusers against commissioner Masit. They were present in these meetings and they want her to be blamed for meetings they participated in,” he said.
“If there was any blame on the events of August 15 then Marjan, Guliye, Molu and Chebukati cannot be saints.”
The probe was initially targeting the ‘Cherera Four’ commissioners but they all resigned before the hearings started and left Masit as the only the only active commissioner for the probe.
It commenced on December 2022 and the hearing of witness testimonies on January 24 with ex-IEBC chairman Chebukati testifying as the last one
