Barely a week before Kenya would hold a repeat of Presidential elections, outspoken Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission, Commissioner, Roselyn Akombe shocked her country on Wednesday when she dramatically resigned from her position and fled to the United States after alleging that the commission cannot be trusted to hold free and fair polls next Thursday.

Akombe became the face of IEBC in the run up to the August 8 polls, when she broke with tradition compared to her fellow commissioners and would appear almost every evening in local television stations and defend the commission from claims it was not ready to hold transparent elections.

Overnight, she became the most vocal commissioner and impressed many with her eloquence and firm grasp on election matters.

In some cases she was always confused for the vice chair of IEBC.

She would attempt to quell fears by the opposition about the printing of ballot papers by Dubai-based printing firm, Al Ghurair which National Super Alliance claimed had close business links with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s family.

She would lead both government and opposition delegates to visit the printing firm in Dubai in a bid to allay fears of any dirty tricks.

In January this year, Akombe took a sabbatical leave from a high flying position at the UN Headquarters in New York, to return to Kenya and serve as a commissioner at the IEBC.

At the time she was on a P5- United Nations salary scale, working in the Department of Political Affairs.

In joining the commission, Dr Akombe took a reported 70 percent pay cut.

“She has been granted special leave without pay to serve in the Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. She’ll provide technical electoral support to the Commission in preparation for the 2017 elections and support efforts to prevent post‑electoral violence in Kenya,” said Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the Secretary-General, in January 23.

Before the elections, the ruling Jubilee administration was not comfortable with her position in the commission, arguing that she was a mole representing the interest of opposition leader, Raila Odinga, an allegation she vehemently denied.

Born in 1976, in Nyamira County in Western Kenya, Dr. Akombe studied Education at the University of Nairobi before embarking for further studies in the United States and pursued a Masters and PhD in Global Affairs at the Rutgers University.

Akombe who has a US citizenship later secured a job as an Under-Secretary at the United Nations in New York.

Several days after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner of the August 8 polls, Akombe was forced to spend a night at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) after the state stopped her from traveling to the United States.

Dr. Akombe was traveling to New York on official duties when immigration officers refused to clear her; citing instructions from above.

It later emerged that the government had earlier issued a directive that all government employees seeking to travel abroad should first seek clearance.

It later took the intervention of the American embassy in Nairobi for her to fly to the U.S

The media was awash with report she was fleeing the country because of the manner in which the commission handled the shambolic polls.

She later denied all the allegations and later returned to Kenya after several days.

Hence, it did not come as a surprise to Kenyans when they woke on Wednesday morning to the news that she had resigned from her position.

It’s now emerging that Akombe is said to have left the country on Monday on a mission to inspect the printing of ballot papers at the Dubai-based printing firm, Al Ghurair, ahead of next week’s repeat polls.

She left Dubai for New York on Tuesday morning, from where she sent her resignation letter.

In her letter she said that the commission is under siege as the staffs are getting last minute instructions on changes in technology and electronic transmission of results while the training of presiding officers is being rushed for fear of attacks from opposition protesters.

She added that legal advice in IEBC is currently skewed to fit partisan political interests.

Kenyans go to the polls in a cloud of uncertainty after opposition chief Raila Odinga last week announced he was pulling out of the October 26 polls.