‘I am not on social media,’ IEBC Vice Chair Juliana Cherera says

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Vice Chairperson Juliana Cherera now says she does not own any social media presence.

This comes following a barrage of accounts, mostly on Facebook and Twitter, that have cropped up bearing her name and posting messages purporting to be from her.

Ms. Cherera, in a message to Citizen Digital, however disowned all the said accounts and said she has since taken action against them.

“I am not on social media. All those Facebook/Twitter accounts are fake and I have reported them to the relevant organizations/authorities,” she wrote.

The accounts started emerging amidst a split in the electoral commission pitting the Chairman Wafula Chebukati and two commissioners, against Ms. Cherera with three other commissioners.

The two factions are engaged in a very public disagreement on the presidential election results.

The split has been brought about by the final tally of the presidential vote, which has resulted in the declaration of a winner by the commission's Chairman and the acceptance of the same by President-elect William Ruto and rejection of the same by the other half and the Azimio-One Kenya presidential candidate, Raila Odinga.

The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party has since said it is exploring legal and constitutional means to challenge the presidential tally.

Ms. Chyerera’s faction, which consists of commissioners Francis Wanderi, Irene Masit, and Justus Nyang’aya, claim among other things that the average percentages of the results scored by the four presidential candidates exceeded the 100 per cent mark, thereby casting doubt on the accuracy of the total number of votes tallied.

They said Chebukati had sole access to the portal backend where the final tally was being conducted and denied them access to it.

Chebukati, in a twist, however claimed that the four commissioners who disowned the final results wanted to force an election re-run.

He maintained that the commissioners had access to all results and were involved in all activities of verification and tallying of the presidential election votes where Ruto was declared the winner.