Yesterday, the talk on social media has been how the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) exposed the lies in the letter y the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
On Wednesday 20th July 2022, news broke that the police service had detained sensitive materials that were being shipped in by the IEBC. The police explained that the law was not followed in the shipment of the cargo; that there was no IEBC staff to receive the consignment at the airport and also that the relevant parties ought to have been notified.
On Thursday, 21st July 2022, IEBC protested the arrested of what it termed as its staff members. In the statement to police, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati termed the police’s action as ‘fake’
“Information circulating that government security agencies at JKIA have detained ballot papers allegedly imported into the country outside the indicated schedule of election materials is fake. The correct position is that today morning (July 21), the Commission received stickers to aid labeling and distribution of election materials. The JKIA security agencies in their normal procedure were trying to validate the stickers with the Commission,” read the statement in part.
It later emerged that those arrested were foreigners (Venezuelans) that had been contracted by IEBC under a company named Smartmatic B.V.
The DCI that night notified Kenyans through thir social media accounts that the statement by Chebukati had left out important information and that Chebukati was not acting in good faith by saying that a “OCS ATPU” had detained the three foreigners.
“…The Directorate hereby clarifies that no such persons have been detained; or any other person working for IEBC anywhere in the territory of the Republic of Kenya. Further, the DCI has no such office known as OCS Anti Terrorism Police Unit’ in our structure. The statement issued by the IEBC Chairman is not only inaccurate, but also misleading to the public and should be treated with the contempt it deserves”, DCI wrote.
On 23rd July 2022, DCI issued a 11 paged statement complete with some evidence collected about the arrest.
In his statement, DCI reveaed that a Kenyan firm Seamless Limited owned by a shadowy Abdulahi Abdi Mohamed who had booked the three Venezuelans arrested at JKIA with stickers meant for IEBC.
“The officers having established that the rolls were allegedly the property of IEBC of the Republic of Kenya arrested the suspect and confiscated the stated rolls and went ahead to inquire from the suspect lose Gregorio Camargo Castellanos how he came into possession of the same The suspect confessed that he was given the materials from Panama by h company M/S Smartmatic International Holding B.V. to deliver to one Abdulahi Abdi Moharned’s office in Nairobi”, the DCI statement said in part.
The questions raised in the statement are:
Why would IEBC materials, which are sensitive to the electoral process be carried by private people and not as cargo?
Why did the Venezuelans travel on expired passports?
Who is Abdulahi Abdi Mohamed and Seamless Limited? Do they have a contract with IEBC?
The three Venezuelans arrested by DCI were not aware of IEBC and Smartmatic BV has also denied that they are their staff members.
There’s another curious law that IEBC CEO Marjan Hussein Mohamed, who signed the contract with Smartmatic BV had ascented to. He had signed a contract which did not have a clause
Can Mr. Chebukati explain to Kenyans the purpose of the blank roll seized?
Can Mr Chebukati account for the stickers already in the country that passed JKIA without being flagged down?
More than 24 hour later, Kenyans on social media and at large are waiting for a response from IEBC.
