Kenya top election official Roselyn Akombe resigns and flee to US amid death threats

Roselyn Akombe, a senior member of Kenya's electoral commission (IEBC) has resigned from her position and fled to the US amid death threats ahead of next week's presidential election re-run.

This comes a week after opposition leader Raila Odinga pulled out of the presidential election re-run after the Supreme Court annulled the result of the original 8 August poll, when current President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner, after finding irregularities and illegalities.

Speaking to BBC Newsday interview from New York, Ms.Akombe recalled the murder of the election commission's IT head, Chris Msando, before the August poll.

"You'll be suicidal to think that nothing will happen to you.I have never felt the kind of fear that I felt in my own country," Ms Akombe told the BBC.

According to her, the IEBC was under political "siege", unable to reach consensus or take any decisions.

Ms. Akombe said she left the IEBC because "the commission in its current state can surely not guarantee a credible election".

‘There is a very high likelihood that the mistakes that some of the presiding officers made during the last election will be repeated," she told the BBC.

She said IEBC members had been voting along partisan lines, without discussing different issues on merit and that commissioners and other IEBC personnel were facing intimidation by political actors and protesters.

Roselyn added that the death threats were anonymous threats, and she had been put under pressure to resign.

She said she did not "feel safe enough to be able to go home" in the foreseeable future.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati in a statement said he regretted Ms. Akombe's decision to quit and warned Kenya's political leaders not to "interfere with the process".