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Kenya: Let Integrity of Polls Come Before IEBC’s Fixation With Huge Budget

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4 years ago

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The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), like any other such body, has undergone a myriad changes. The body dates back to Independence in 1963 as Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) under the then-Constitution.

When, under Justice Zacchaeus Chesoni (who later became Chief Justice), it conducted the 1992 General Election, ECK comprised 21 presidential appointees.

Samuel Kivuitu took over in 1997 to lead IEBC through the 1997, 2002 and the violent 2007 elections and the 2005 referendum. The 2008 overhaul of ECK saw it become Interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya (IIECK), under Issack Hassan.

IIECK operated for 12 months alongside the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission of Kenya, under Andrew Ligale. In 2011, the two merged to form IEBC, its nine commissioners having two six-year terms, from the previous two terms of five years each.

Forced to resign

In October 2016, Mr Hassan and his team were forced to resign under mounting pressure from the political class and the citizenry, leading to the appointment of IEBC in 2017.

All the commissions have suffered bad publicity or scandals. However, there seems to be a lot of mystery engulfing the IEBC, arising from the nullified presidential election in 2017, an African first.

IEBC was impugned by the Supreme Court, having its image dented. It now have an uphill task of repairing their integrity, having in mind the political drums sounding towards the 2022 General Election.

IEBC, having been split upon the unceremonious resignation of six commissioners, left a tainted picture of the remaining trio. Worse, IEBC’s demands for more funds to run the upcoming election seem suspicious. Having been vilified by the Supreme Court, it’s shocking how it operates as if it’s business as usual, even after failing to properly manage the little at hand. One is left wondering whether these commissioners have a shred of conscience and integrity.

IEBC servers

What would you expect from a chairperson who blatantly disregarded the Supreme Courts’ orders to open and adduce the contents of the electoral servers? Being in the middle of a pandemic and with the possibility that the health crisis will persist to 2022, it is saddening to see that IEBC has remained mum on how it plans to conduct the election, bearing in mind that the activity might turn out to be a super spreader of the coronavirus. Shouldn’t it be issuing guidelines and information on how it expects to conduct the elections, a democratic right for every Kenyan, while protecting the voters from Covid-19?