Former DP Rigathi Gachagua has sent a warning to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) regarding the upcoming by-election.

In a statement on November 24, Gachagua accused IEBC Vice Chairperson Fahima Araphat Abdallah of interfering with the electoral process in Magarini Constituency by-elections.

“To the Chairman, IEBC, Mr. Erastus Edung Ethekon, please tame your Vice Chairperson, Fahima Araphat Abdallah. Do not attempt to meddle with the elections. Kenya is not your ordinary 3rd World Country to rig elections,” Gachagua said.

Here is Gachagua’s full statement:

1. My attention is drawn to the role self-assigned and reckless conduct of your Vice Chairperson Fahima Araphat Abdallah, OGW, with utmost impunity to meddle and bungle the Magarini Constituency by-elections for the 27th November, 2025.

2. This is despite the fact that it is within my knowledge and common knowledge that the Magarini by-elections were occasioned by electoral malpractices by IEBC in the year 2022.

3. It is within my knowledge that the IEBC has a deliberate policy not to deploy commissioners/officers from the regions where they come from in the event of an election or a by-election.

4. I am aware that your Vice Chairperson, Fahima Araphat Abdallah, has assumed the role of managing the Magarini by-elections through corrupt, covert means. You are well aware that the commissioner assigned to the coast region is one Dr. Alutalala Mukhwana.

5. Be informed, might it not be within your knowledge, that on Friday, 21st November 2025, your Vice Chairperson Fahima Araphat Abdallah was in Magarini, where she bullied, intimidated, and coerced the electoral officials manning the Magarini by-elections.

6. She demanded the full list and contacts of all the officers presiding over the by-elections in Magarini; In the evening of the same Friday, your rogue Vice Chairperson Fahima Araphat Abdallah, in the company of Dr. Alutalala Mukhwana held a meeting at the Boutique Hotel in Malindi with Kilifi Governor Gideon Munga’ro and a bribery negation was carried out and a figure we shall disclose was agreed upon.

7. This was in exchange for the list and names of all the presiding officers and instructions thereto to help Governor Gideon Mung’aro bungle the elections in favour of his preferred candidate.

8. In the meeting, the Vice Chairperson committed to handing in the list of all the officers and their contacts once Governor Mung’aro puts in a deposit of the agreed-upon bribe.

9. After the Friday, 21st November 2025 meeting, all officers were instructed by your vice chairperson to closely work with Governor Mung’aro and give him the full support he so needs for the by-elections; The officials were cornered and intimidated to this electoral malpractice ordeal.

10. On the same Friday, 21st November, 2025, your vice chairperson spent the night at the same Boutique Hotel, details which you can confirm from the hotel booking list and the CCTV footage.

11. On Saturday, 22nd November, 2025, Governor Mung’aro handed in the bribe deposit to your Vice Chairperson Fahima Araphat Abdallah, and in exchange, he was handed in the list and contact details of the presiding officers and a full command of the electoral process to his favour and candidate thereof.

12. Your Vice Chairperson, Fahima Araphat Abdallah, spent another night at the hotel and left for Nairobi on an evening flight.

13. It is shocking and utterly unbelievable that a commissioner of IEBC at the level of a Vice Chairperson can be involved in an extreme drive to bungle a by-election.

14. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Erastus Edung Ethekon, you know the circumstances and which you and your commissioners were put in the office. Do not let us and the people of Kenya remind you as such; From the outset, though Kenyans kept quiet, like me, they had every doubt that your impartiality in the 2027 General Elections remains doubtful; Dr. Erastus Edung Ethekon, while this could be true, you could have used the 27th November 2025 by-elections to prove Kenyans and the world otherwise.

15. Mr. Erastus Edung Ethekon, it is sad that barely four months into your being in office under the circumstances you clearly know, your Vice Chairperson, Fahima Araphat Abdallah, is on a reckless spree to bungle a by-election. This is totally unacceptable. This casts every doubt on your 2027 conduct.

16. On behalf of our DCP Candidate in Magarini, Hon. Stanley Karisa Kenga, and on my own behalf, we demand that all the Presiding Officers in Magarini be replaced forthwith.

17. We further demand that you restrain and restrict your rogue vice chairperson, Fahima Araphat Abdallah, from bungling the Magarini by-elections and any other elections within the territory of the Republic of Kenya.

18. We demand that Mr. Chairman, you protect electoral officials and Magarini and other electoral areas from harassment and intimidation by the Vice Chairperson.

19. Additionally, we further demand that you carry out a thorough investigation into the conduct of your Vice Chairperson and that she immediately step down as a vice chairperson and a commissioner of the IEBC.

20. Mr. Chairman, Erastus Edung Ethekon, the 2027 General Elections in Kenya will be an emotive election; you live in Kenya, and you can judge the mood of the country; do not feign ignorance.

21. You have the moral duty and responsibility to earn the trust of the people of Kenya ahead of the 2027 General Elections; any perception of dereliction of the 2027 General Elections could throw this great nation into anarchy.

22. Kenya is not Tanzania.

23. Do the right thing in Magarini Constituency and avoid innuendos. Restrain and discipline your rogue vice chairperson.

24. Finally, the question I am asking and many other Kenyans ask is, if an IEBC Commissioner can be involved in an electoral malpractice this early, how can we trust IEBC with the 2027 General Elections?

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