The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has denied claims that they dropped Okoa Kenya Initiative based on the signatures appended on the booklets.
In a press release sent to newsrooms on Monday, IEBC made it clear that it did not at any point verify the authenticity of signatures presented in support of the Okoa Kenya initiative.
The Commission communication and corporate affairs manager Tabitha Mutemi says any mark was admitted as an intention or consent by a petitioner.
Mutemi says the Commission did not reject a single signature because of its structure or formation.
“The records that were rejected were those that were not found in the voters register. Some records had signatures but without ID or passport numbers while others had just names and no other entries,” she said.
She agreed that the claim that IEBC could not possibly verify signatures because it did not have a repository of samples is true.
“It is therefore needless to be labour or fault IEBC on this matter and we could not ridicule ourselves to that extent,” she further noted.
IEBC has come under heavy criticisms from the opposition that it was not their mandate to dictate what type of signature to be appended in the booklets.