Dr. Roselyn Akombe fled Kenya at the time Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto had unleashed their death squads so as to clear any opposition to their rule, after the annulled August 2017 general elections.
On the night of October 2017, Akombe fled fearing for her life.
Akombe’s colleague at the IT department Chris Msando had been killed a week before the election, his thumb was missing ostensibly it was used to log into the watertight elections results database.
Akombe later said she had to lie that she going to Dubai so as to be let go easily as her experience where she was detained at JKIA in August had shown that she couldn’t be allowed to peacefully resign from the commission.
That August 2017, it took the intervention of the United Nations and the US embassy in Nairobi for the UNDP Governance staff to be let go.
The August election had been nullified by the Supreme Court under President David Maraga and things were thick for IEBC staff with a contrary opinion to UhuRuto.
A repeat election was scheduled for end of October 2017.
COMMISSIONER Roselyn Akombe resigns from IEBC in a statement issued from New York; she diverted to the US from Dubai pic.twitter.com/MnExlSBJmT
— Bernard Momanyi (@momanyibernard) October 18, 2017
Recently, Dr Akombe was posted to Ethiopia after working for several years at UN Headquarters in New York.
Nothing beats the feeling of being home #Kenya, where my umbilical cord remains. Thanks a million to all who made it possible. I owe you a lot! pic.twitter.com/J1JBcWpon6
— Dr. Roselyn Akombe (@DrRoselynAkombe) February 16, 2021
