The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman, Wafula Chebukati, on Sunday night, August 14, convened a 3-hour meeting involving all commissioners and party agents, their deputies and secretaries at the Bomas of Kenya. 

Media reports indicated that the purpose of the meeting was to mitigate the perennial commotion that occurred at the National Tallying Centre in the wee hours of Sunday morning. 

Chief agents were directed by the electoral body to inform their party members to keep silent for the remainder of the exercise, with those who would not heed the calls risking being kicked out.

The meeting also followed chaos witnessed between Friday and Sunday with party agents alleging rigging of the polls during the verification exercise at Bomas.

In one of the incidents, an unidentified man was roughed up by security officials after bullying an IEBC official from his seat and dragging him away. 

The man forcefully took a gadget from the official and handed it over to an unidentified woman. Anti-riot police swung into action and escorted the man out of the auditorium.

At the time, Azimio’s Chief Agent, Saitabao Ole Kanchory, took issue with the chaos, questioning the credibility of the verification exercise. 

“I want to tell the country that Bomas is a scene of a crime,” Kanchory stated before being escorted out of the podium by law enforcement officers. 

As it stands, the verification process by party agents and IEBC Returning Officers is nearing conclusion with 286 out of 291 Forms 34B having been verified by the time of publishing.

As soon as the verification of the Forms 34B is done, they will be collated into a single document (Form 34C) and the electoral body will use it to confirm if any candidates achieved the 50 per cent plus one vote threshold.

The IEBC chair, Wafula Chebukati, will then proceed to declare the president-elect and issue a certificate.