• IEBC has been without commissioners since January this year following retirement and resignation of some commissioners.
• The IEBC needs to conduct at least three parliamentary and ward by-elections due to deaths and court orders that overturned victory.
Image: FILE
The electoral agency has lifted the lid on the deep crisis it faces in the wake of delayed recruitment of new commissioners.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission revealed that its crucial operations have come to a standstill.
CEO Hussein Marjan said the commission is unable to comply with court orders and conduct by-elections for various seats across the country.
“We have been affected so much. The biggest challenge is the fact that there are court orders that we cannot be able to effect,” Marjan told the Star on the phone.
IEBC has been without commissioners since January this year following retirement and resignation of some commissioners.
The process to replace them has dragged due to a political standoff between President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza and opposition chief Raila Odinga’s Azimio.
The IEBC needs to conduct at least three parliamentary and ward by-elections due to deaths and court orders that overturned victory.
They include Banisa MP seat whose holder Kullow Maalim Hassan died after he was hit by a motorcycle in March.
“We were given a writ by the Speaker of the National Assembly but we cannot be able to do that because it requires chairperson of the commission to gazette the timelines and appointment of returning officers to do that by-election,” he said.
“That work cannot be done by secretariat. It has to be done by the commission chaired by the chairperson."
The commission is also expected to gazette a winner for an MCA seat in Garissa following a court order after a recount of votes.
In 2021, the court faulted verifying the referendum signatures without the requisite number of commissioners. At the time, there were two commissioners and the chairman.
“IEBC should have filled the vacant positions. IEBC should carry out its functions with all hands-on deck,” High Court judge Francis Tuiyot ruled.
Tuiyott said the statute fixes the composition of IEBC to seven and a quorum of five which has not been challenged.
“IEBC was not quorate when it embarked on the business of verifying BBI signatures. The commission needed to be in the right quorum," he ruled.
Marjan said the commission’s annual and procurement plans have stalled due to lack of commissioners to approve them for execution.
“The commissioners are responsible for governance of the Constitution. So, ideally, they are expected to approve our plans – annual plans, procurement plans – but that can’t happen now,” he said.
Marjan said the commission risks running out time to carry out the boundary delimitation, an exercise that should have been underway by now.
“We are also staring at another huge crisis whereby if we don’t have commissioners in place, then we will not be able to do delimitation as envisaged by the law,” the CEO warned.
He said the delimitation exercise is supposed to be finalised by March 2024.
“There is some work that we have been able to do but there are others, like public participation that has to be spearheaded by the commission as per the law. We can’t do that as secretariat," Marjan said.
Article 89 of the Constitution stipulates that IEBC shall review the names and boundaries of constituencies at intervals of not less than eight years, and not more than 12 years. However, any review shall be completed at least 12 months before a general election of members of Parliament.
The last boundaries review was conducted in February 2012.
“So, those activities which are by and large guided by the law, we cannot be able to do them. We are in crisis because we cannot be able to conduct the by-election and comply to the court orders,” Marjan said.
Former chairman Wafula Chebukati and ex-commissioners Abdi Guliye and Boya Mulu retired in January after serving their six-year non-renewal term.
Juliana Cherera, Justus Nyang’aya and Francis Wanderi resigned as commissioners late last year after the President appointed a tribunal to investigate their conduct in last year’s polls.
Commissioner Irene Masit, who defied pressure and faced the tribunal, bowed out after the Justice Aggrey Muchelule-led team recommended her ouster.