Raila Odinga’s camp has claimed that some ballot papers were “shipped from Uganda” to help his rival William Ruto to rig the Kenya presidential election.
Raphael Tuju, the Executive Director of Raila’s Azimio La Umoja on Tuesday night said “there were extra-created polling centers in Mount Kenya (central region) and some parts of the country by the IEBC illegally. These polling centers had ghost voters , the extra one million votes William Ruto got was not realistic.”
He added: “The ballot papers were being shipped from Uganda, by different vehicles to those polling centers for marking, then unknown presiding officer signs and stamps form 34A 34B and uploads to the IEBC portal for verification and announcement.”
This is the first time a Kenyan official is accusing Uganda of playing a hand in the hotly contested election. Ruto defeated Raila Odinga to be declared the fifth president of Kenya.
However, Odinga has disputed the election outcome, saying, “the figures announced by Mr. Chebukati (IEBC boss) are null and void and must be quashed by a court of law. In our view, there is neither a legally and validly declared winner nor a President-Elect.”
Efforts to reach Ugandan government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo to comment on Tuju’s claims did not bear fruit as he did not pick our calls.
However, Kenyans on Twitter challenged Tuju to prove his claims with evidence.
I have enough evidence in videos, tomorrow afternoon, I will be uploading them here so that, you know what happened at the portal of IEBC. And the Ugandan vehicles which were found with @IEBCKenya ballot papers, in different parts of the country at the election day.
— Raphael Tuju (@RephaelTuju) August 16, 2022
Others wondered how the alleged ballot boxes entered Kenya without being intercepted by the country’s intelligence services.
A one Timothy Mathias observed: “What you (Tuju) are simply admitting is your inefficiency to run this, we fail at times or in most cases in your case and finding a scapegoat comes into play, but find something better.”
P Kings responded to Tuju: “You mean there were ballot papers which were brought from Uganda? Where were Matiangi and Kibicho (security chiefs)?”
Under fire, Tuju said he had collected ample evidence to prove his claims.
“I have enough evidence in videos, tomorrow afternoon, I will be uploading them here so that, you know what happened at the portal of IEBC. And the Ugandan vehicles which were found with IEBC ballot papers, in different parts of the country at the election day,” he observed.
A one David Mwavali (Kenyan) responded to Tuju: “This reminds me of my life at Kakamega High School, I always had an excuse for poor performance, that most that defeated me copied the exams. But my parents always laughed off and encouraged me that at least I should have been above the pass mark even if the others copied.”
Critics said Raila’s team failed at mobilisation of agents both in numbers as well as taking care of them.
“They were either inadequate, underpaid or both unlike your competitors. Your contestants took care of their interests but didn’t lay emphasis on the Presidential,” said a one Mathias.
Other Kenyans on Twitter urged Tuju to take the evidence to the Supreme Court to challenge Ruto’s election.