DCP slams IEBC deputy chair Magarini’s rigging claims in a blistering open letter that accuses Vice Chairperson Fahima Araphat Abdallah of colluding with local electoral officials and Governor Gideon Mung’aro to tilt the upcoming by-election toward the governor’s preferred candidate.
The Democratic Congress Party (DCP), led by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, fired off the missive Friday afternoon, tagging the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and its chairman, Erastus Edung Ethekon, warning that “Kenya is not your ordinary third-world country to rig elections.”
The explosive allegations centre on the Magarini parliamentary by-election triggered by a court case linking Harrison Garama Kombe. DCP claims Fahima, a seasoned electoral administrator, has been holding clandestine meetings with Magarini returning officer and Governor Mung’aro, allegedly instructing them to manipulate voter registers and ballot logistics in favour of ODM candidate Harrison Garama Kombe, widely seen as Mung’aro’s proxy.
“Your deputy chair is openly dining with the governor and his agents while wearing the IEBC badge. This is not mediation; it is meddling,” the letter signed by DCP Secretary-General Hezron Obaga reads, demanding immediate suspension of Fahima and deployment of neutral officials.
Party insiders say the accusations stem from leaked WhatsApp chats and CCTV footage from a Malindi hotel where Fahima allegedly met Mung’aro late Friday night.
Sources close to the governor dismissed the claims as “desperate propaganda from a sinking ship”, insisting the meeting was a routine security briefing ahead of campaigns.
DCP supporters in Magarini are furious. “We saw the deputy chair’s convoy at the hotel at midnight. What transparency is that?” fumed youth leader
The stakes are sky-high. Magarini, a cosmopolitan constituency of Giriama, Pokomo, and Somali voters, has historically swung between opposition and government.
A perceived rigging scandal could ignite the very violence IEBC fears, especially after 2022’s peaceful but bitterly contested polls. DCP candidate Stanley Kenga, a little-known businessman, has surged in local polls on the back of Gachagua’s anti-Ruto wave, making any hint of bias explosive.
As the sun set over the Indian Ocean, both camps dug in. DCP threatened nationwide protests if Fahima remains, while Mung’aro dared them to “bring evidence, not noise.”
With less than two weeks to polling day, DCP slams IEBC deputy chair Magarini, claiming rigging has turned a sleepy coastal by-election into a national referendum on electoral trust – and the first real test of whether Kenya’s institutions can withstand the 2027 heat already scorching the horizon.
