Nairobi — The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) says delays due to pending court battles will interfere with the arrival of ballot papers for different selective seats and has pushed forward the tentative arrival time to August 3.
The Commission had scheduled all the 132 million ballot papers to be in the country by July 29 but the delay in ruling the cases had overstretched the polls body timelines.
Accompanying the first batch of presidential ballot papers from Greece with a delegation of stakeholders, IEBC Vice Chair Juliana Cherera symbolized that the legal cases have derailed the preparedness of the commission in terms of printing and transporting ballot papers.
"As soon as the court gives us a ruling we proceed to print. Most of the things have been held up so that we wait for the rulings. I want to assure you that once the ruling is out we proceed to print. That's why the last delivery will be on the 3rd August which is on the extreme end," she said.
In the Mombasa gubernatorial race, Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko had filed a review case at the Supreme Court and the East Africa Court of Justice (EACJ) on the judgment by Supreme Court to validate his impeachment thereby declaring him unfit to hold public office.
In the Nairobi Governor's race, a pending case filed by a petitioner on the validity of the degree by Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja is still in court and its outcome might affect the nature of the political battle for the control of the city county.
Even so, the poll body has won the support of representatives of presidential candidates in the August 9 State House race as well as civil society accompanied commissioners Cherera and Francis Wanderi to inspect the printing of ballot papers at Inform Lykos (Hellas) SA Company's factory premises in Athens.
"I can truly tell you whatever has been there is what we agreed on, I what to believe what we saw is the real situation which is the real situation at Greece and what has come to the country," said Anthony Mwaura, the UDA representative.
IEBC facilitated the trip to would allow key stakeholders to witness the printing, packaging and logistics of the ballot papers to be used in the General Election.
Currently, the poll body has 65 million ballot papers consignment out of the 132 million expected in the country for the poll expected in the next 14 days.
"We inspected the printing and packaging of ballot papers for the presidential position and we are in agreement that indeed the process was conducted and Azimio shall also communicate further," Velma Maumo, the Azimio coalition representative.
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Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance had alleged that their Kenya Kwanza Alliance competitors have hatched a plot to rig the August vote by stiffing the ballot papers.
Chebukati has since shrugged off the claims noting that the exercise of printing the ballot papers is above board.
"All ballot papers will come through the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and not as alleged by some politicians," Chebukati said.
Chebukati stressed that the commission will not print any extra ballot papers saying they have only procured 22.1 million ballot papers which is the number or registered voters.
"There are no ballot papers from Uganda or anywhere else. Don't allow individuals to lie to you. All ballot papers are serialized and we are only printing ballot papers to the tune of 22,120,258 million which is the number of registered voters per every elective seat," Chebukati noted.
IEBC has cleared a total of 16,098 candidates to compete for political seats in the August 9 General Election.
The vacant positions include 290 seats for Members of the National Assembly, 1,450 for Members of County Assembly, and 47 Senate seats, another 47 for the positions of County Governor as well as 47 Woman Representative slots.
