The electoral commission was on Wednesda compelled to apologise to Kenyans following a tweet posted on its page which termed President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga’s peace project, Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) as a “Burning Bridges Initiative.”
Though it was quickly deleted, hawk-eyed netizens were quick to spot the “error” sparking a debate on social media with some accusing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of bias.
The polls agency, while announcing the launch of signatures backing the proposed amendments to the Constitution, used the phrase ‘burning bridges’.
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“Happening now: The launch of the Burning Bridges Initiative Supporters Verification Exercise at the Bomas of Kenya,” the tweet read that has since been deleted.
The tweet, which was part of a thread, was hurriedly deleted, but not without the attention of Twitter users who took screenshots of the post.
The error elicited reactions from among online users, some expressing their anger at the commission and accusing it of showing signs of not backing the BBI process.
“The IEBC’s political bias and shameful incompetence, like pregnancy, cannot be hidden anymore. It keeps showing. Time to exhaustively reform this crime cesspool,” Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi wrote.
“Someone at IEBC deliberately called BBI Burning Bridges Initiative. However pleasing this is, l am shocked that an independent commission can openly be biased. Can they be trusted to deliver free and fair results?” Mwalimu Abuduba Dida, a 2013 and 2017 presidential candidate also wrote on twitter.
“It is another sad day for democracy in Kenya,” he added.
Moments later, the commission apologized for the offending tweet, saying it does not reflect the position of the commission or staff.
“Earlier today, the Commission posted a tweet on the launch of the Verification of BBI supporters. However, there was a typographical error in the tweet which was made inadvertently. The error does NOT any in way reflect the position of the Commission or its staff,” the polls team tweeted.
“The Commission sincerely apologizes to all its stakeholders and the General Public,” it added.
