Transcribed: Roselyn Akombe runs for her life saying October 26th elections will not be credible
I woke up to the news that IEBC Commissioner Dr. Roselyn Akombe has fled the country but I didn’t believe it. I didn’t even believe a BBC article to that effect that looked genuine. The BBC article wrote, “A senior official from the Kenyan electoral commission has fled the country. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission was expected to make changes after the Supreme Court nullified the first election. She says it has been under a political siege ahead of next week’s re-run, and that a credible election can’t be held. Dr Roselyn Akombe told Newsday why she’s decided to leave.”
The excerpt above comes from an Interview Roselyn Akombe had with BBC which has been transcribed below:
Roselyn Akombe
You know I have been agonising for months now about my role at the commission and my effectiveness at the commission and my safety and security. And I reached my decision after visiting four counties and seeing my staff I realized we are a difficult situation as a country preparing for an election in which you have a candidate that has withdrawn; in which you have the commission not meeting all its obligations, and yet not coming out very strongly to say that these are the challenges we are facing in terms of technology. We’ve been having a situation in the commission whereby every decision is on the basis of a vote, and so it was becoming increasingly difficult really to be able to stand up and say, I am doing this because I believe in it. It was more of I am doing this because we have a collective responsibility and I had to defend those positions even if I don’t believe in them.
Interviewer
So why don’t you stay in Kenya and fight out your position, why have you gone to the United States.
Roselyn Akombe
It is not possible as the commission is constituted right now to make any changes internally because you have to have enough votes. The second aspect of it is a safety and security issue. I mean you have seen you are aware that nine days before the last election our manager in charge of ICT Chris Msando was brutally murdered, that has never been resolved.
Interviewer
Did you feel there were any threats to your life?
Roselyn Akombe
Absolutely. I mean I have never felt the kind of fear that I felt in my own country. I have traveled around the world, I have been to various countries, so if you get such messages and you have seen your own staff get that and be murdered you’d really be suicidal to think that nothing will happen to you.
Interviewer
Where were these threats coming from? The governing Jubilee coalition or NASA?
Roselyn Akombe
I always see possibility of threats coming from anybody because sometimes it is opportunistic.
Interviewer
Will Kenya and the commission be ready to conduct credible election on the 26th of October?
Roselyn Akombe
You know I was going to say that if it is to conduct an election yes, the commission is ready to hold an election. Will it be a credible election? Absolutely not. There is a very high likelihood that the mistakes that some of the presiding officers made during the last election will be repeated. If you are dealing with an election in which at least half of the country is not going to be participating in, could you consider that that be the environment for having a credible election exist? It does not.
Interviewer
Has the NASA coalition, the opposition of Mr. Raila Odinga, has that party been putting some of your staff under pressure in some parts of the country?
Roselyn Akombe
Absolutely and it is unexpectable
Interviewer
You do realise that by giving this interview, you will give them credence, when you say that this election will not be fair, you do realise they will use this interview to justify scrapping the election or at least getting rid of the chairman of electoral commission?
Roselyn Akombe
You see my personality requires that I speak the truth. There are also aspects that I cannot live with. I cannot live with an election that is never going to be a credible election. We have to get to a point whereby we are able to speak the truth, whether that truth hurts Jubilee or whether that truth hurts NASA. But it is the truth.
Interviewer
Do you envisage yourself going back to Kenya in the foreseeable future?
Roselyn Akombe
Ah, no. I don’t feel safe enough to be able to go back home. I haven’t been feeling safe being there. This is not what I ever thought it was going to end up being as a job.
