Caption: US ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec addresses the press at Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi ahead of an address by the electoral commission, August 11, 2017. PHOTO: The Star
Jubilee party's Kimilili Member of Parliament Dismus Barasa and his counterpart in NASA representing Uriri constituency have told off US ambassador Robert Godec and the diplomatic community on their involvement in solving the stalemate in the country ahead of the repeat presidential election expected on 26, October.
The first time legislators while on an interview at KTN News on Sunday said the diplomatic were flagging off their interests and not those of the Kenyan electorate in efforts to have a credible election urging the electoral body to ignore their intervention for as long as they are not born out of stakeholder involvement.
The Kimilili MP said only the clergy had played a genuine role in ensuring a common ground is reached among the opposing sides."The diplomats have met neither Jubilee nor NASA and their intervention is selfish and deserve to be ignored.Only religious leaders have attempted to meet both sides before making their intervention," said Mr Barasa.
He added that the Kenyan democratic space is quite distinct from that of the diplomats' States and that they need to stay aside and only make observations.
Uriri Member of Parliament Mark Nyamita cited incidences at Bomas of Kenya when the nullified polls were declared saying he was in the company of the NASA coalition candidate Raila Odinga who made an appeal to the US ambassador to intervene and see to it that IEBC does not announce the results.
He accused Mr Godec of ignoring their plea despite their having strongly held that all forms had to be physically availed and verified before the winner was announced to the nation.
According to him this had proved the diplomats as unreliable in high stake events as the presidential elections insisting the opposition had no plans to shelf their irreducible demands in order for them to participate in the election.
He reiterated that if the ground is not levelled for the players there shall be no elections on the set day.
"We will not boycott the elections but our position is that there will be no elections if we do not have a fair playing ground ahead of the repeat," said Mr Nyamita.The international be community through ambassadors to Kenya urged both sides to be rational in their demands and allow the commission that is now hit by divisions to conduct the elections.The commission chairman Wafula Chebukati has set up a side team to conduct the polls leaving out the CEO Ezra Chiloba, a move the Uriri MP terms as an admission by Mr Chebukati that to tell IEBC secretariat had failed to do their job.
Mr Nyamita urged Chebukati to be courageous enough and crack the whip on the staff and have Chiloba out of office instead of leaving him at the helm of accounting affairs yet he claims Chiloba shall not play an active role as the CEO.