Connect with us

General News

Kenya: IEBC Plan to Reuse 2017 Poll System Triggers Calls for Disbandment

Published

5 years ago

on

[ad_1]

A proposal by the electoral agency to reuse 2017 poll tools for the 2022 general election has triggered fresh calls for its disbandment.

Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement and Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress yesterday called for the disbandment of the Wafula Chebukati-led Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the recruitment of a new team to oversee the 2022 polls.

“Chebukati and co are remnants of a disgraced IEBC; a commission that badly bungled an election,” ANC secretary-general Barrack Muluka told the Nation.

“In the interest of honour and self-esteem, that team should have gone home a long time ago.”

Mr Muluka said the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), a product of the Handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Odinga in 2018 “were all factors that came out of what the disgraced IEBC did in 2017”.

SCANDALOUS

“It is shameful and scandalous that these are the same people telling us about 2022. As a matter of urgency, we hope to very soon replace these people and have a breath of fresh air in a body so integral to our democracy,” Mr Muluka said.

ODM secretary-general Edwin Sifuna, on the other hand, took issue with the IEBC’s announcement of its intention to reuse the 2017 technology it procured from French firm Idemia, formerly OT-Morpho.

“Technology in itself is not the problem. The people who opened the backdoor for interference with the technology are the problem,” Mr Sifuna told the Nation yesterday. He cited the recommendation by the BBI team to restructure the commission as an important consolation.

“We are comforted by the knowledge that the current commissioners will never run another election in Kenya. We understand the need to save on costs, but we would insist on certain safeguards,” Mr Sifuna argued.

IEBC commissioner Abdi Guliye told a webinar to assess Kenya’s preparedness for the 2022 polls that the commission was keen on updating the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems) software for use in the next election.

Currently, the commission owns the Idemia hardware, but still needs regular software updates from the French firm – which, if not done, the IEBC says, will mean procuring a completely new system.

INSTABILITY

Mr Chebukati, who now only remains with commissioners Prof Guliye and Boya Molu, thinks the proposal for their ouster is ill-advised and may lead to instability at a crucial time of preparing for the 2022 polls.

“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,” Mr Chebukati told the BBI team in a memorandum.