Photo: Mutula Kilonzo Jr Makueni — The document that proves Mutula Kilonzo Junior's election as Makueni Senator is not just a piece of paper for him as it is not for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which says it holds the special significance of recapturing the faith of the Kenyan people.
As the commission awarded the election certificate to Mutula Jr for securing the Makueni Senate seat, its Deputy Secretary in charge of Support Services Wilson Shollei said they deserve a pat on the back for how they handled Friday's by-election and the transmission of results.
"I think this time round we can say that we outperformed ourselves and therefore at some stage we may want recognition from the leadership of this country for making you proud," he said.
Shollei's sentiments were shared by the Makueni County Returning Officer Salad Boru who insisted on congratulating his team before declaring Mutula Jr a duly elected Senator.
"Not now," he said to chants of "declare now" before going on to say, "I am happy to inform the country and Makueni both that the results submitted electronically last night were 100 percent accurate."
The real time transmission of which the commission's ICT Director Dismas Ongondi attributed to lessons learnt from failure of the very same systems in the March 4 General Election.
"This time we made double sure our staff was thoroughly familiarised with the technology and systems we designed. We also made sure to deploy and facilitate enough people who could deal with any challenges that came up," he explained.
Shollei had just prior to the Makueni by-election told editors that he believed the commission deserved congratulations for the general election as well despite what he termed, "people-ware failures."
"There's hardware, software and people-ware.
The recognition Shollei called for had however already been furnished by none other than the head of State himself.
"The Makueni by-election was by all means a victory for our national institutions and the growth of democracy," President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Friday night.
He did however caution the commission against breathing too easy reminding them that you are only as good as your last win.
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