Former CEO of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), James Oswago, has been shortlisted among 37 candidates eyeing the chairperson’s position in the electoral body — despite being convicted of corruption offences.
- •Last year, the High Court upheld the convictions of Oswago and his deputy, Wilson Shollei, over irregularities in the procurement of voter registration kits for the 2013 general election.
- •The ruling by Judge Nixon Sifuna affirmed the 2022 decision by the Anti-Corruption Court, which sentenced both officials to four years in prison with an alternative fine of KSh 7.5 million each.
- •The court found that Oswago and Shollei had willfully failed to comply with procurement regulations and abused their offices in the KSh 1.3 billion tender — a scandal linked to the broader “Chickengate” corruption case.
The ‘Chickengate’ corruption scandal involved executives of ‘Smith & Ouzman’ — a UK-based security printing firm — who had bribed election officials to secure contracts to print election materials. Payments, disguised under the code name “chicken,” were made to Kenyan officials through a local agent. The corruption extended to tenders for electronic voter identification devices (EVIDs), which were crucial for voter verification in the election but later failed on polling day, heaping doubt on the credibility of the electoral process.
Oswago, who holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Moi University, will contend with other notable personalities like Former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Anne Amadi and the Former Chairman of the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), Charles Nyachae.
Amadi holds a Masters Degree in Public International Law from the University of Nairobi (UoN) and Nyachae has similar credentials in the profession from the University of London.
The IEBC Chair position has been vacant since January 2023 after the term of the previous holder, Wafula Chebukati, came to an end. Chebukati oversaw two highly contested elections, 2017 and 2022, and the vacancy of the position has drawn legal criticism as the electoral body cannot handle any of its activities — including by-elections in constituencies and wards whose elected leaders died.
