The 2022 general elections saw ex-Prime Minister Raila Odinga go head to head with the the now President-elect William Ruto. It was at the tallying centre that Kenyans were treated to all kinds of theatrics as the opposing teams tried to outwit each other. At the centre of this push and pull at the Bomas of Kenya was the then little known Saitabao Ole Kanchory, the man Odinga has entrusted to be his national chief agent.
Here is the full story as told by WoK.
Background
Saitabao Ole Kanchory was born and raised in Kajiado County. He attended Olkejuado High school and later joined the University of Nairobi for his bachelor’s degree in Law. He obtained his Postgraduate Diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law. He is currently an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and the Managing Partner at Kanchory & Co. Advocates.
Becoming Raila Odinga’s Chief Agent
On 5th June 2022, the former Prime Minister and presidential aspirant Raila Odinga appointed Saitabao Ole Kanchory as the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance national chief agent at an event held at the Bomas of Kenya. He was deputized by the Deputy Governor of Nyeri county Dr. Caroline Karugu, Dr. Oduor Ongwen and Professor Isiah Kindiki who is the brother to William Ruto’s chief agent Kithure Kindiki. He also appointed lawyer Paul Mwangi as his legal advisor in the team that was to represent him during the vote tallying at the Bomas of Kenya.
Supervising the 2022 presidential elections
On 13th August 2022, chaos erupted at the tallying centre after a section of the Azimio coalition leaders alleged that they were irregularities in the verification exercise. They claimed that some IEBC officials were colluding with their opponents to alter the results and sneak in forms 34 A as reported by the Star newspaper. This led to Raila’s chief agent Saitabao Ole Kanchory to walk in the VIP dais, where he grabbed the microphone and announced ‘that the Bomas is a scene of crime.“
On 15th August 2022 just before the official announcement of the presidential results, Kanchory during an impromptu address to the press revealed that his team did not have verifiable presidential results and that they have tried to reach the IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati in vain.
“The agents had been assured to be supplied with Form 34C which bears the result of the election. But the chairman has been avoiding us all day…he has deliberately held himself incommunicado,” he explained.
Wafula Chebukati would later emerge and announce the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) aspirant William Ruto as the President-elect.
Kanchory would then take to social media to write “Wafula Chebukati results are irregular, illegal and fake. They are attained through an opaque, irregular and illegal process. They have been disowned and denounced by 4 out of 6 commissioners,” he wrote on his twitter handle.
