Oliver Mathenge and Bernard Namunane

4 August 2010

Nairobi — The Interim Independent Electoral Commission boss Isaack Hassan on Wednesday night defended the commission following claims of rigging by the 'No' team at the Bomas of Kenya.

Mr Hassan said they had perfected a system of adding up results at the central tallying centre that could not be manipulated as claimed by the 'No' team.

The protests were led by National Council of Churches of Kenya general secretary Peter Karanja and national chief agent David Koech shortly after the preliminary 'Yes' votes surpassed their camp's.

A visibly agitated Mr Hassan addressed the media after meeting the 'Reds' team and reiterated that the results released had been verified by agents of the two camps on the ground.

The IIEC boss said the commission had a constitutional mandate to develop an electronic system to collect and transmit election data.

"Political parties do not conduct elections and it is the work of the commission to conduct the referendum. Let us conduct the referendum independently and respect our authority," he said.

He added that political parties had been updated on the tallying system. Mr Hassan said agents of the 'Yes' and 'No' camps will be given copies of the results as received from the ground.

"Every committee agent will get a copy of the results to compare with what they have received from their own agents on the ground," he said.

The 'No' campaign had accused the IIEC of conspiring with the 'Yes' team to rig the referendum.

Speaking outside the auditorium as the results trickled in, the Rev Karanja claimed the exercise was marred with irregularities.

"We have noticed irregularities as anticipated, but we call on our supporters to be calm as we address the issue with the IIEC," he said.

Mr Koech accused the media of swapping 'No' results with 'Yes'. He also questioned the sudden slump of 'No' votes. Also present were envoys Michael Ranneberger (US) and Shigeo Iwatani (Japan).