Condolences are still pouring following the death of the former Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson, Wafula Chebukati, on Thursday evening.
The former IEBC boss had been admitted to a hospital in Nairobi, where he had been undergoing treatment for nearly a week.
Chebukati, who was 64, died at 11 pm on Thursday.
The former IEBC boss had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital. What Chebukati was ailing from still remains private.
Known to many, in 2022, the Star Newspaper named the former IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati Person of the Year.
The Star said Chebukati emerged at the top after many who voted for him defined him as a person who defied all the odds to deliver a presidential election that averted a potential catastrophe that could have pushed Kenya to the brink.
How Chebukati defied all odds during the 2022 General Elections
While declaring the presidential results on August 15, Chebukati exposed the behind-the-scenes intrigues that nearly marred the country’s fifth transition of power.
Chebukati would later claim the country’s top security agents and political operatives had visited him the night before in what he described as an attempt to have him alter the presidential results.
Despite the pressure from the country’s National Security Advisory Council to ‘moderate’ the presidential results for a possible run-off in the event President William Ruto had won, Chebukati stood firm against the push.
Chebukati also heavily relied on the transmission of Forms 34A through the results management system, whose direct upload to the portal, analysts said, made the exercise foolproof.
When the presidential petition challenging the declaration of Ruto as the fifth president was thrown out by the Supreme Court, Chebukati affirmed his respect for constitutionalism.
He had gone through baptism by fire in the political crucible.
“I now rest assured that we all in IEBC have been vindicated. I have been vindicated, too. My patriotism and love for my country remains unbowed,” the IEBC chairman said.
It turned out the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission had been split down the middle over Ruto’s narrow victory against then opposition chief Raila Odinga.
Four commissioners disowned the presidential results and said they had not been properly involved.
A litigation and dispute resolution legal expert and a former Saboti parliamentary candidate, Chebukati, walked down the Bomas of Kenya auditorium staircase, affirming his respect for the Constitution.
“I swore to defend the Constitution and the rule of law …,” Chebukati said at the chaotic Bomas auditorium as he released the presidential results. “That’s why I stand before you today despite intimidation and harassment. I have a duty to serve this country and in accordance with the Constitution.”
Speaking to the moments that preceded the announcement, Chebukati had claimed that two of his commissioners, Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye(now former commissioners), and the then IEBC Chief Executive officer Hussein Marjan had been attacked and injured in the melee.
In a previous interview, Chebukati said that he exits the stage happy that the electoral process in Kenya has come of age and it is a case study for many on how to conduct a free, fair, transparent and credible election that meets the democratic aspirations of the people.
Chebukati studied law at the University of Nairobi and the Kenya School of Law, and received an MBA from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
He practised law in Kenya for 30 years, specialising in litigation and dispute resolution, company mergers and acquisitions, and maritime, conveyance, and labour cases.
He founded the Nairobi-based Cootow & Associates Advocates law firm in 2006. He was also a member of the Law Society of Kenya, the Institute of Certified Secretaries (ICS), and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
