Kenya: Top judge’s role in election preparation sets off alarm bells

The unorthodox arrangement has prompted the electoral commission’s boss Wafula Chebukati to refuse to be involved in the government’s preparation group for the August 2022 poll.

In a letter to the group of state agencies that were convened to a recent election meeting, Chebukati turned them down citing the need to preserve the commission’s independence and credibility of the election.

The genesis

In late October, Karanja Kibicho, the principal secretary in the office of President Uhuru Kenyatta, invited 13 state agencies to a meeting to map out the road to the 2022 election.