Bodies nominating the nine members of the panel that will recruit the next crop of IEBC commissioners have until today to do so.
Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, as chairperson of the Parliamentary Service Commission, has until close of business today to receive the names.
The Speaker is thereafter expected to submit the names to President William Ruto to appoint the selection panel.
The IEBC (Amendment) Act, 2023, set a 14-day window for the respective nominating bodies, a deadline that lapses today.
As per the new law, the Parliamentary Service Commission has two slots in the panel, three for political parties under the liaison umbrella PPLC, two for interreligious council, and one each for ICPAK and the Law Society of Kenya.
The team is taking shape with most of the agencies having forwarded their nominees to the PSC for onward transmission to the President.
The Institute of Certified Public Accountants-Kenya nominated Tanui Andrew Kipkoech as its representative in the panel.
Political Parties Liaison Committee (PPLC) on its part nominated Evans Misati – the current chair of the committee. He is to represent non-parliamentary parties.
Others in the PPLC team is Nicodemus Bore to represent the majority party. He is an executive director at President Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance party.
PPLC also nominated Augustus Muli to represent the minority side. He is the leader of the National Liberal Party.
The Interreligious Council, for its part, has nominated Nelson Makanda of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya and Fatma Saman of the National Muslim Leaders Forum.
As of press time, the nominees for the Law Society of Kenya and Parliamentary Service Commission were yet to be unveiled. It is expected they will be named today.
Eyes are on who the Raila and Ruto parties have picked to represent their sides.
The major political coalitions are to nominate two persons through the PSC. PSC conducted the interviews to pick its nominees on Friday.
The nominees are to represent the majority party or coalition of parties and the minority party or coalition of parties.
After their appointment, the panel would have 90 days to forward the names of the nominees to the IEBC, after which it would stand dissolved.
Misati, Saman, and Makanda were in the selection panel whose work was stopped to pave the way for the dialogue between President Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga’s side.
Other members were vice chairperson Charity Kisotu and members Bethuel Sugut, Euralia Atieno, and Benson Ngugi.
Their work was stopped when they were just about to begin short-listing candidates for chairman and members of IEBC. At least 25 applied for chairperson and 925 for commissioner jobs.
His comeback follows a provision of the new law which extended a lease of life for those who were in the initial team.
“The selection panel existing immediately before the commencement of this Act shall stand dissolved but the members of that panel may be nominated to serve in any subsequent panel,” the law reads.
Notes accompanying Tanui’s nomination state that he is a member of the institute’s public policy and governance committee.
He is also the current chairman of the audit committee of the Teachers Service Commission and currently serves as deputy director of Corporate Affairs at a government agency.
President Ruto, after receiving the names from PSC, has seven days to appoint the selection panel to appoint the chair and members.
IEBC presently has no commissioner after chairman Wafula Chebukati and commissioners, Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye, retired in January last year.
The other four commissioners - Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Justus Nyang’aya and Irene Masit - were kicked out for rejecting Ruto’s election as President.
The new team of commissioners would, however, work in a different dispensation.
The Bill sets the quorum of IEBC commissioners at five and bars any members from taking up the role of chairperson.
It also deletes the provision in the current law that the vice chairperson can act in the absence of the chairperson.
The criteria for appointments to the commission have also been expanded to incorporate expertise in information technology and accounting.
Experts argued that IEBC operations would be paralysed in the absence of a chairperson and five members to transact business.
The law says that unless a unanimous decision is reached, a decision on any matter before the Commission shall be by the concurrence of a majority of all the members of the commission.
Last week, Wetang’ula said the IEBC selection panel will be gazetted by Tuesday this week to kick-start the process of recruiting new commissioners.
He said all bodies mandated to second names to the panel were expected to do so by Friday last week.
“By the close of the week, we shall have all names, and send them to the President for gazettement by Tuesday, “ Wetang’ula said.
The Speaker addressed a press conference at Parliament Buildings on Monday.
Wetang’ula said the panel should be in place within 14 days after the President signed the IEBC (Amendment) Bill, 2023 into law.
Once gazetted, the panel will invite Kenyans to apply for the positions of chairman and Commissioner.
The panel will then shortlist candidates for interviews.
