MPs seek bigger role in hiring IEBC chiefs

Parliament will have the biggest say in the filling of vacancies at the electoral commission if a committee report approving Senate amendments to a law to guide the selection of the commissioners is approved by the National Assembly.  

The report proposes that the selection panel should have seven members. Out of the seven, the MPs want the Parliamentary Service Commission to nominate four members.

In the report of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) tabled in the House last week, the National Assembly also agreed with the Senate’s move to reduce the representations of religious groups from the current five to only two.

The Senate, in changes approved by JLAC in its report, also deleted the provision to have one representative each from the Public Service Commission, the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission, the National Gender and Equality Commission, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

Parliamentary commission

Besides the four members—two men and two women—to be nominated by the parliamentary commission, other representatives in the seven-member team will be one person nominated by the Law Society of Kenya, and two picked by the Inter-religious Council of Kenya.

“The current IEBC as constituted by three commissioners lacks capacity and the quorum to make major policy decisions. . . .The IEBC may be paralysed if the Bill is not passed to provide for an avenue to appoint more commissioners,” JLAC chair Muturi Kigano (Kangema) said in the committee’s report to the House.

Mr Kigano told the House that if not passed as amended by the Senate, “it will be referred to the mediation committee which may lead to further delays towards addressing the challenges of the IEBC.”

The Senate defended the move to give Parliament the biggest say in the selection panel.

“Parliament is a representative of the people because we are here on behalf of other Kenyans. Therefore, we thought that Parliamentary Service Commission being members of the selection panel will allow Parliament to have direct input in the entire process,” then Senate Justice, Legal and Human Rights Committee chair Samson Cherargei said.

Four vacancies

The IEBC currently has four vacancies following the resignation of Commissioner Roselyne Akombe days before the October 26, 2017 repeat presidential election, as well as the joint resignations in 2018 of vice-chairperson Connie Nkatha Maina, and commissioners Paul Kurgat and Margaret Mwachanya.

Those who remained in the commission are chairman Wafula Chebukati, and commissioners Boya Molu and Prof Abdi Guliye.

The Bill, which now needs the concurrence of the National Assembly to become law, seeks to resolve the gap in law, which has seen the commission operate with only three of the required seven commissioners.

Already, there are discussions that could see even more vacancies at the commission, with the November 2019 Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report recommending the firing of the remaining IEBC commissioners as well as the vetting of the secretariat staff.

This will be a bad idea, Mr Chebukati told the BBI team when it validated its report in February this year. The report is complete and is now awaiting President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga to receive it.

 “Going into the 2022 General Election with a new set of commissioners and secretariat staff will not only seriously undermine credibility of the elections but may also result in political instability,” said Mr Chebukati .