Opposition chief Raila Odinga dashed the hopes of early celebrations by the Jubilee brigade and agreed with the IEBC chiefs to stop what was set to be the declaration of presidential results.
All was set and the state machine had literally descended over the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya.
The president’s chair, red carpet, his security and press team were at Bomas amid tight security before Deputy President William Ruto drove in at around midday.
It was expected that President Uhuru Kenyatta would arrive moments later, after the IEBC promised to address the nation at around 2.30pm.
Jubilee bigwigs led by Garissa Town MP-elect Aden Duale and a host of Cabinet Secretaries were already seated in the Bomas of Kenya auditorium.
Then at around 1pm, Raila, his co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Musalia Mudavadi drove to Bomas and headed straight into a closed-door meeting with the IEBC commissioners.
It is understood that IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba, branded by NASA as Jubilee poster boy, was locked out of the meeting.
US Ambassador Robert Godec tried to enter the meeting room and left almost immediately.
It was suspected the opposition team was not comfortable with Godec’s presence.
Earlier in the day, Godec led more than 10 Western envoys in lauding the IEBC for conducting a free and fair election despite NASA protests that they have been rigged out.
However, the NASA team later disclosed they separately met diplomats and religious leaders to explain their position.
But after a nearly two-hour closed-door meeting with the IEBC, it was apparent that the declaration of presidential results would be postponed as diplomats and top government officials started driving away.
Sources who attended the meeting said Raila warned Chebukati to avoid rushing, take his time, and ensure the eventual results are accurate.
At a press conference yesterday, the NASA team demanded that the IEBC make public the information in its computer servers and promised to accept its verdict.
The opposition’s claim that actual and complete data captured in the IEBC servers shows Raila beat Uhuru by a huge margin before the system was hacked and the results manipulated.
“We have given an offer to the commission and a challenge to the commission that in order to bring this matter to an end we should be given access to their servers – not just us, even Jubilee, religious leaders, the media, that we should look at their servers retaining the raw data coming from the field particularly,” Siaya Senator James Orengo said.
“Our note of finality is this, if they can open those servers and we all look at it, we are prepared to accept the results as contained in those servers.” NASA claims Raila leads the presidential race by 8,041,726 votes against Uhuru’s 7,755,428.
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