IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati has expressed concerns over the fact that in every election an electoral officer has to die.

According to Chebukati, peaking during the burial of slain IEBC official Daniel Musyoka, working for the commission should not be a death sentence.

“The electoral body’s job is to prepare for elections and not be pallbearers for colleagues who have been murdered in the line of duty,” he said.

“Why must an election officer be murdered after every election? Whose gods do we anger by performing our sacred constitutional duty?” Chebukati posed.

“We cannot continue like this, we cannot make working for IEBC a death sentence,” he added.

Chebukati blamed the danger facing the commission’s officers on “political rivalry and brinkmanship”

The IEBC chairman called on relevant agencies to resolve the murder of slain IEBC officers warning that if they remain unresolved, they risk creating a culture of intimidation of poll agency staff.

“Serving in IEBC should not be an inherently hazardous occupation. If the staff and the independence of the institutions are not vehemently protected, the institution will decreasingly attract honest men and women which will have a disastrous effect,” he said.

Musyoka had served the IEBC commission for ten years as a constituency election coordinator in Kilome. He disappeared in the line of duty during the August 9 general elections at Embakasi East polling station. His body was discovered five days later in Kajiado.

According to an autopsy report, Musyoka died of strangulation.