[VIDEO] Raila, Wetang'ula teargassed during Cord protest at IEBC

Police guarding the IEBC's offices fired teargas at Opposition leaders on Monday to keep them from storming in to remove commissioners.

Among leaders who took part in the protest were chief Raila Odinga, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and Senators Moses Wetang'ula (Bungoma), James Orengo (Siaya) and Anyang' Nyong'o (Kisumu).

They led about 500 supporters, who waved placards, whistled and shouted, to the commission's offices at Anniversary Towers in Nairobi.

One of the protesters attempted to climb the gates before they were dispersed by anti-riot police who used teargas.

Raila earlier accused the Jubilee government and the IEBC of arguing against reforms for a democratic electoral system.

He claimed the commission helped Jubilee rig the last general election. Some IEBC officials were mentioned in a corruption scandal in Britain, involving the printing of ballot papers for a 2010 referendum held by IEBC's predecessor, the Interim Independent Electoral Commission.

 Key among Cord's concerns is also the rejection of its Okoa Kenya initiative for failure to meet the one million constitutional threshold for signatures.

Cord submitted booklets containing 1.4 million signatures in October 2015 but only 891,598 were found to be valid. 

Raila said changes being pushed by the Opposition are aimed at reflecting the will of members of the public.

But National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale said Cord was staging a constitutional coup as the electoral body cannot be disbanded by storming the offices.

Duale said the road map for disbanding the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is provided in Article 251 of the constitution.

Jubilee leaders dared Cord to to forcefully eject the commissioners but the IEBC said it was ready to receive the coalition and engage every Kenyan over their concerns. Police are guarding Anniversary Towers in Nairobi where the IEBC's offices are.

 

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