Today the IEBC met with presidential aspirants and their representative at the Bomas of Kenya. In the address IEBC chairperson Wafula Wanyonyi Chebukati addressed some key issues pertaining to the August polls. The commission maintained that the 48,000 copies of identification documents and accompanying signatures of 2,000 supporters from at least 24 counties must be presented by each presidential hopeful by the end of day. However this did not mean that aspirants who had not collected enough signatures will be barred from proceeding.
“The commission has had your pleas and we want to say this because of the many many(he emphasized) requests. And I think this is the resounding question across the room. We shall say this, those of you who have come with supporters’ signatures however few they are submit them to the team. But we shall give you up to the 25th of May to submit the rest of the signatures. So that you give us time to process.” Wafula Wanyonyi Chebukati IEBC chairperson. The grace period will not be extended further, “If by the deadline of the time you have been given you will not have gotten the signatures, then you will be disqualified from contesting.”
Upon the receipt of the copies, IEBC will commence the verification process. “Once the Commission finishes the verification of the supporters, where there is a shortfall of signatures in numbers of reduction of expulsion from the list, the aspirants will be given reasonable time to get the remaining signatures,” stated Mr Chebukati.
Concerns over personal data and privacy had been raised by the aspirants of which the commission responded by, “There should be no fear that documents deposited to us will find their way to the wrong hands. We are compliant with the data and we shall take care of the documents in terms of the Data Provision Act,” IEBC chairperson shared.
The meeting gave the aspirants an opportunity to ask and get clarification on any matters they had to address with the commission.
