Revamp electoral agency - Daily Nation

The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) provides an opportunity for Kenyans to reflect on how to improve governance and enhance democracy and national prosperity. It is for this reason that the leaders, ordinary people, experts and special interest groups need to look into the current shortcomings and give proposals on how to take the country to the next level.

Unfortunately, the recent public BBI forums to discuss how to fix the country’s endemic political and socioeconomic challenges have needlessly degenerated into platforms for vile abuse and personal insults between rival politicians, who seem overly obsessed with the 2022 succession politics.

One area that is crying out for national attention is election management. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) plays a pivotal role in nurturing our democracy, and yet, since the BBI engagements began, two rival groupings have hogged the conversation with their political rivalry at the expense of vital issues. The IEBC has hobbled along, severely incapacitated by administrative hitches and shortcomings. Besides Chairman Wafula Chebukati, there are just two or so other commissioners and no substantive CEO for the electoral body.

This severely handicapped agency is expected to carry out a review of constituency boundaries ahead of the 2022 General Election. Of course, compared to our neighbours, we have a more sophisticated electoral agency that largely ensures that the people’s verdict emerges at all the levels in the electoral process and, should anybody feel aggrieved, they can seek redress. And it has worked reasonably well. However, it needs to be strengthened.

A BBI conversation that leaves out the IEBC would not yield the desired greater democratisation.