Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has asked individuals who have moved to court over the constitution of the IEBC selection panel to drop the cases to enable the country to get a new leadership for the electoral agency.
The reconstitution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has become a hot potato with involved parties shifting blame even as the 2027 general elections draw closer by the day.
Speaking on Monday, the Prime CS said some politicians were using the court system to frustrate efforts to reconstitute the electoral commission citing malice as the driving force.
"Majority of the leaders and Kenyans are keen on a new commission and led by President Ruto and Raila have agreed, but there are a few leaders who are hellbent on seeing the country without the election body, their move is driven by malice," Mudavadi said.
He was speaking during the launch of the Information and Communication Technologies Digital Hub and Digital Economy Conference at Kakamega County Polytechnic.
The Prime CS said there was a multi-sectorial and political agreement on the rebuilding of the IEBC and any attempts to halt the process using courts was misguided.
He called on the leaders who had moved to court using what he claimed were proxies to drop the cases and enable the stalled IEBC reconstitution process to proceed as initially envisioned.
"Apart from any by-elections, there is also the need for the country to begin the review of boundaries ahead of the elections," Mudavadi said.
Last week, Supreme Court Judge Isaac Lenaola took a swipe at Parliament for prioritising enactment and passage of politically correct legislation at the expense of more important issues such as IEBC reconstitution.
He said time was of the essence yet with just three years to the next general election, the commission was yet to be put together and wondered when it would prepare for the polls if it's constituted too close to the elections.
"I don’t understand why we are busy passing legislation very quickly on other subjects that are politically important but we don’t look at what is extremely important for this country," he said.
Lenaola was speaking on Thursday at the Regional Conference on the use of AI, Digital and Social media in elections in Kenya.
“For example the Electoral Commission, how can a country like ours stand on her feet if we do not have an electoral commission? Elections are in 2027, this is 2024, when will this commission be prepared?” he posed.
The judge directly pointed the finger at the Azimio coalition for stalling the process by haggling in court over who their representative should be on the IEBC selection panel.
National Liberal party leader Augustus Kyalo Muli won the election to represent Azimio on the IEBC selection panel but the Wiper party wing of the opposition coalition reached for lawyer Koki Muli installed as the representative.
All 23 Azimio constituent parties took part in the election facilitated by the political parties liaison committee and overseen by the IEBC with Kyalo emerging the winner with 16 votes against lawyer Koki's 7.
Wiper, however, declined to approve his election demanding that Koki take the slot, a stance that prompted Kyalo to move to court.
“I won square and fair. I was issued with a certificate. I'm the only one who has a certificate so nobody else has any authority to say that they are selected in the selection panel,” Kyalo said during a morning show on Citizen TV.
He vowed to defend the position asserting that no one has ever challenged his election.
“Why is IEBC not being reconstituted? Because Azimio can’t appoint their representative to the panel. Is that something to hold a country hostage for two years?” Justice Lenaola asked.
Meanwhile, Mudavadi called on leaders to work hard and implement their manifestos during the remaining period to the next polls noting that the electorate will make choices at the ballot based on their remaining 24 months.
"We have already finished two years and there is another two before the electorate makes the final decision; no leader should waste time on unnecessary bickering and empty politics," Mudavadi said.
He said the Kenya Kwanza government was on the right track trying to improve the livelihoods of Kenyans and the country's economy.
The Prime CS said the government had put 22,000 government services online and noted that he would consider having the recruitment of police conducted online.
"In the spirit of transparency, we will have the first stage of police recruitment through a digital platform to cut off middlemen who were making money from the recruitment process," he said.
Mudavadi said having occurrence books (OBs) at police stations done digitally to remove the possibility cases of people plucking out complaints' pages was also in the pipeline.
"We want to fully embrace online services on all fronts to ensure that we simplify how people work but also weed out corruption through less interaction of paperwork," Mudavadi said.