Chebukati bows to Raila’s pressure, agrees to use only sh 93M

Saturday, December 19, 2020 -The Wafula Chebukati led electoral Commission will use the little money available to carry out BBI Signature verification process.

This is after it emerged that the Treasury held a long meeting with the body and piled pressure on the IEBC to use the available resources to complete the verification process.

According to how it was reported, sh 93,729, 800 will be used in the Building Bridges Initiative BBI exercise against the initial huge budget that would have seen taxpayers lose million in  very short period.

“The Commission is required by law to undertake verification of the supporters to ensure compliance with the requirements of Article 257(4) of the Constitution of Kenya. To undertake the verification exercise, the Commission will have to hire data entry clerks, conference facilities, accommodation, stationery, among others,” IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati noted.

The electoral body IEBC received on its desk Constitutional Amendment Bill 2020 and a total of 4.4 million supporting signatures for verification.

Orange Democratic Movement ODM Party boss Raila Odinga has been championing for a lean budget for the body saying it was not making sense to pump more cash into the exercise when still it was possible to use a small budget to make the process a success.

Initially IEBC had prepared a budget of sh 241,011,00 to the National Treasury for the entire process of verification