Roselyn Akombe Pays Tribute to Chris Msando 8 Years after Murder: "They Silenced You Forever"
- It has been eight years since Chris Msando was killed in Kiambu county, with the killers not unmasked as of yet
- He was at the helm of the IEBC's electoral technology and systems, and he often elaborated on how fraudproof they were ahead of the 2017 vote
- Former IEBC commissioner Roselyn Akombe remembered the slain ICT boss in a heartfelt X post on July 31, 2025
One-time Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioner Roselyn Akombe has remembered her former colleague, the late Chris Msando, in a heartfelt eighth-anniversary message.
Source: Twitter
Akombe took to X to pay tribute to Msando and revisit the painful atrocity that ended his life on July 31, 2017.
How Roselyn Akombe remembered Chris Msando
She regretted that the deceased had to meet his tragic end at the height of his commitment to safeguard the dignity of Kenya's electoral justice.
More painful for Akombe was that her former colleague would never rise to life again; her lifeline is the hope that justice, though tardy, will ever be served even in the deceased's eternal absence.
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"Eight years ago, they strangled you for merely doing your work. You had openly stated that under your watch, elections would not be rigged. They silenced you forever. But justice will be served one day. Your legacy in the fight for electoral justice remains etched in our memories. Rest in power , Shujaa. #ChrisMsando," she tweeted.
At the time of his death, Msando was the IEBC's Data Centre and Infrastructure custodian, charged with overseeing and protecting the electoral technology for the 2017 vote.
He was killed after a series of media interviews in which he meticulously elaborated on how fraud-proof the electoral digital infrastructure had been made to avert such malpractices as rigging.
Msando would manage the systems, the digital voters' roll, and the transmission of the presidential results.
But he never lived to see the workings of the systems he had passionately prepared.
Eight years on, his killers are yet to be unmasked.
How Chris Msando met his death
Aged 45, Msando was killed in Kiambu county thicket after three days of going missing.
His body was traced to Nairobi's City Mortuary, where it had been booked as an unidentified deceased person.
Source: UGC
The body has marks of cuts and bruises, indicating he was tortured before breathing his last.
Msando's death disoriented the IEBC, then under the late chairman Wafula Chebukati, who expressed concerns over the safety of election officials as the general election drew closer.
The election went on regardless, but was annulled by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision by the majority in the seven-judge bench.
The judges argued that the election lost its credibility due to irregularities on the side of the commission.
Chebukati and his team were therefore ordered to prepare a call for a repeat election in accordance with the guidelines prescribed by the apex court.
It was in the course of the preparations of the repeat election when Akombe resigned from her commissioner job and fled the country.
Why Roselyn Akombe resigned from IEBC
Speaking from the United States moments after her arrival, Akombe claimed the IEBC had been infiltrated by influence from, outside and hence the chairman's decisions were ever overruled.
She revealed that Chebukati never had authority and that the decisions of the commission were shaped by the majority of commissioners, whom she claimed were compromised and hence defeated consensus.
Akombe held that the IEBC was not prepared to hold the repeat election due to the divisions in the commission.
Proofreading by Asher Omondi, copy editor at TUKO.co.ke.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
