President Kenyatta holds the key to a reconstituted electoral commission after MPs passed a law that will guide the process.
With Deputy President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga pulling in different directions over the composition of the poll agency, the next few weeks will be crucial as leaders mass their troops ahead of the 2022 General Election.
Parliament last week approved a bill that stipulates that a seven-member selection panel be constituted to recruit Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioners.
If the President assents to it, the Parliamentary Service Commission will name four of the seven IEBC panel members.
Besides the four, it will also have one person nominated by the Law Society of Kenya and two picked by the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya. Mr Odinga and President Kenyatta have a bigger sway at PSC compared to Dr Ruto.
It’s members include National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, deputised by Dr Naomi Shaban (Taveta), with members Adan Keynan (Eldas), Beth Mugo (nominated senator), George Khaniri (Vihiga senator), Rachel Ameso (Makueni woman rep), and Wiper’s Ben Momanyi (Borabu), all allied to President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga.
Dr Ruto only has outspoken Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot and Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa in the 11-member team that has former Ainabkoi MP Samwel Chepkonga representing the public, with the Senate Clerk Jeremiah Nyegenye as its secretary.
The nomination of former IEBC commissioners Paul Kurgat, Connie Nkatha Maina and Margaret Mwachanya as deputy heads of missions last week signaled the acceptance of the vacancies, more than two years after their resignations in April 2018.
Dr Roselyne Akombe, another IEBC commissioner, quit just days before the October 26, 2017 repeat presidential election, leaving the embattled IEBC with Chairman Wafula Chebukati, and commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye.
“We have no problem with whoever they choose to lead the IEBC. What we know is that votes are decided in polling stations. They can even have Oburu Odinga (Mr Odinga’s elder brother) as the chairman. I have no problem. I know they cannot decide. It is the people,” Dr Ruto said in Embu Town after a church service at Total Grace, Manyatta.
“All I am asking my competitors is this: You can have any commissioner you want. But please, give us the assurance that once the people have decided, you will accept the results. Do not incite violence,” he added. Belgut MP Nelson Koech, a close ally of the DP, yesterday suggested that Dr Ruto’s talk of “they can pick whoever they want” was out of a narrative being created that the Tangatanga group was out to quash.
“The IEBC debate is a convenient sideshow meant to hammer the point that elections are determined by an organ and not the people. Some people have been alarmed by the increasing popularity of our candidate and want to send fear among the followers that however much you have the people, your fate is determined by an institution. We shall not be distracted,” said Mr Koech.
ODM secretary-general Edwin Sifuna said the DP’s comments were misplaced. “Oburu is a Kenyan like anyone else and is available to serve in any capacity. Ruto should focus on Raila and stop directing his personal bile to his relatives,” said Mr Sifuna.
In every poll, having a say in who picks the referee is integral to the process, with the November 2019 report acknowledging this and calling for the adoption of a process similar to the 1997 Inter Parliamentary Group that allowed parties to send representatives to the electoral body.
Mr Sifuna said yesterday the 1997 model was the best route, dismissing an argument by Parliament that parties’ interests were already represented.
“I do not agree with Parliament on this. We prefer the IPPG model,” he said. IEBC has opposed a bid to have parties have a say in the selection process or in the commissioners themselves. “Political parties are loyalty-based institutions and are unlikely to have non-partisan individuals in its membership. Members’ actions may be motivated by political interest contrary to Article 88 of the Constitution,” Mr Chebukati said in a memorandum to the BBI team.
As discussions go on concerning the composition of the 2022 IEBC team, Mr Chebukati and the other two commissioners remain unsure of their fate after the November 2019 report recommended the disbandment of the commission. “Going into the 2022 General Election with a new set of commissioners and secretariat staff will not only undermine credibility of the elections but may also result in political instability,” Mr Chebukati told the BBI team.
“The recommendation is ill-advised and does not strengthen and enhance faith in the commission. The conduct of elections is not an event but follows a five-year electoral cycle that requires sufficient preparation, overseen by personnel with requisite knowledge and skills.”
The IEBC chief argues that the BBI team, which is expected to present its validated report to President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga anytime soon, “recommended easier options of placing the blame on IEBC and calling for its disbandment”. Yesterday, Mr Nelson Koech, the Belgut MP allied to Dr Ruto, said the Chebukati team should stay in office, with the panel only required to fill the four vacancies.
“Nobody has had a successful petition on why IEBC should be disbanded. Besides, the IEBC got rid of people that losers considered compromised. We should be focusing on legislation to strengthen the commission, not to weaken it. We are two years to election and sending everybody home is simply destabilising IEBC and puncturing its state of preparedness,” Mr Koech told the Nation.
