Broke IEBC on the edge as it reels under Sh3bn debt

The electoral agency cannot carry out crucial activities ahead of the 2022 General Election due to lack of cash.

Reeling under a Sh3 billion debt, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) lacks funds for an audit of polls technology and voter registration.

In an annual report to Parliament, the IEBC has called for continuous funding to support core activities “instead of waiting for an election year”.

“The National Treasury should avail a sufficient budget to fund the core mandate of the commission and settle pending bills, which continue to attract interest due to non-payment,” IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati told Parliament in the commission’s 2019/20 annual report.

Like other constitutional commissions, IEBC is required to provide the National Assembly and the Senate an annual report detailing its activities, plans and financial status.

The agency has been pushing for the establishment of the IEBC Fund, which would allow it to draw cash from the Consolidate Fund.

In the 2019/20 financial year, the commission received Sh4.6 billion, out of which Sh1.1 billion was used to settle pending bills. IEBC owes different suppliers Sh3.125 billion. “The commission has faced budgetary constraints and was unable to settle some of the 2017 election bills,” Mr Chebukati said.

Elections cost

The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) team wants the commission to state the estimated cost of elections six months before they are held.

“The Bill obligates the Commission to apply financial resources in designing, planning and managing elections in a prudent and responsible manner. In addition, the commission is to report to Parliament, within six months of a general election, on the cost of the polls,” the BBI report states in its proposals to amend the IEBC Act.

The lack of funding has stalled IEBC’s plan to re-use the 2017 election materials — which require auditing, maintenance or software update — in 2022.

In 2017, the IEBC procured the Sh4 billion Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems) to run its voter registration, identification, results transmission and candidates’ management system.

While the IEBC procured the Kiems kits hardware, the equipment needs regular updates from the French firm. If this is not done, the country may have to buy similar materials for the 2022 polls.

“The commission has continued to maintain the Kiems kits, Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) a System and Wide Area Network to enhance their re-usability in future elections,” Mr Chebukati told Parliament.

While it targeted to maintain all the 44,832 kits every three months, the commission said it was only averaging less than a half of that, only doing 20,000.

“The kits are stored in various county warehouses, affecting maintenance. Inadequate funding for effective maintenance has also affected the process,” Mr Chebukati said in the annual report

Affected plans

Among the plans affected by lack of adequate funding is IEBC’s vision of building its new headquarters outside the Central Business District.

The IEBC is now housed in the Anniversary Towers, the building along University Way owned by Kenya Re, where IEBC has called home for more than 13 years.

“The commission will continue to pursue funding to implement the project since the commission offices are currently located in a rented building which is not conducive for its operations due to congestions, uncontrolled movement in and out of the offices and disruptions of to the business enterprises during heightened political activities,” Mr Chebukati said.

The commission spends Sh100 million a year on rent at the premises — a sum that the IEBC said excludes costs incurred in hiring venues for meetings, and for conducting trainings.

“The proposed acquisition of the commission’s own premises will not only cut the high recurrent costs of office space rent, but also the costs for hiring other venues for trainings, meetings with stakeholders and storage,” Mr Chebukati said in 2018 when the idea was first mooted.

Further, Mr Chebukati said, the movement of the commission headquarters out of the central business district “will see minimal disruptions to other activities in the CBD in the event of any picketing and demonstrations.”

In 2016, Opposition leader Raila Odinga led his troops to weekly demonstrations to demand the exit of the Issack Hassan-led commission, which they said was not the best to take Kenya to the 2017 polls.

Registered voters

In the annual report, the IEBC said it had registered 55,535 new voters this year, less than 10 per cent of its targeted 588,045 voters this year.

Mombasa County leads with the highest number of newly registered voters with 5,393 followed by Kakamega, Kakamega (4,405), Kilifi (3,434), Vihiga (3,403), Meru (3,188) Makueni (2,510), Nairobi (2,618), Kiambu (2,463), Homa Bay (2,284), and Kisii (2,291).

Wajir County, with no new voter listed this year, leads those with the lowest registered voters in the 2019/20 year, followed by Mandera (29), Isiolo (32) voters, Uasin Gishu (36) and Lamu (46).

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