Former Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson Wafula Chebukati has died.
The former IEBC boss was admitted to a hospital in Nairobi where he was undergoing treatment for nearly a week.
The former IEBC boss had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital.
What Chebukati was ailing from remains private.
Close family sources told the Star the former IEBC boss had been undergoing treatment at home and was taken to hospital after the situation got dire.
Chebukati was born on December 22, 1961.
He served in the position of IEBC chair for a six-year tenure from January 2017, to January 18, 2023.
During his tenure, he managed to oversee three Kenyan elections: the 2017 Kenyan general election, the October 2017 Kenyan repeat presidential election and the 2022 Kenyan general election.
He was a lawyer with 37 years of experience and ran his sole proprietorship law firm for 20 years.
In 2006, Chebukati founded a Nairobi-based partnership law firm Cootow & Associate Advocates, which he resigned from on January 17, 2017, prior to becoming IEBC chairperson.
He practiced corporate law, commercial law, corporate governance and dispute resolution.
He was a politician and member of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party, which he also resigned from, before applying for the position of chairperson of IEBC.
In 2007, contested the Saboti Constituency parliamentary seat and came in second place.
Chebukati was awarded the Elder of the Order of the Golden Heart (EGH) by President William Ruto.
The EGH is the second highest honour awarded by the Kenyan government after that of the Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart (CGH).
He attended Lenana High School. He held a Bachelor of Law from the University of Nairobi, a postgraduate diploma at the Kenya School of Law (KSL) and a Master of Business Administration from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).
He is a former member of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), the Institute of Certified Secretaries, and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
Chebukati has been survived by his wife Mary Chebukati, who he married in 1990.
The couple was blessed with three children; a girl and two boys.
