IEBC raises red flag on delayed election laws
Panic has gripped the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), after Parliament adjourned without enacting a set of laws, that would enable it to conduct next year’s polls as guided by a 2017 Supreme Court ruling.
IEBC is now concerned that unless MPs urgently reconvene to enact laws to guide elections and transmission of presidential results, the country could be staring at another nullification of the presidential poll in 2022.
With the August 9, 2022, fast approaching and MPs dilly-dallying over the need to rectify the “technical errors” that led to the nullification of the presidential results in 2017, IEBC is imploring legislators to save the country from a possible expensive presidential re-run.
“We are shooting ourselves in the foot. These are amendments that must be adopted in conformity with the Supreme and High Court rulings, otherwise I can foresee a repeat of 2017. Time is not on our side to continue dilly-dallying,” IEBC acting Chief Executive Marjan Marjan told People Daily last evening.
Marjan said IEBC is racing against time to ensure enactment of a law, that would lead to the creation of an alternative means of transmitting presidential results, to avert a repeat of the 2017 election that saw President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory overturned.
Among the issues IEBC wants to be addressed urgently are presidential vote transmission, law on recall of MPs, creation of alternatives in the event of failure of Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems), achievement of the elusive gender rule and its recusal from overseeing political parties primaries.
The Wafula Chebukati-led commission has proposed a raft of amendments to the Elections Act, that could see the electoral body have “contemporary mechanisms for identification of voters and transmission of the elections results” at its disposal.
The agency wants amendments to Section 39 that focuses on the handling of Form 34A, which the Supreme Court concluded should be used to declare the presidential election results.
The idea, according to a source within IEBC, is to have Form 34A carefully handled by Presiding Officers at polling stations and signed by all agents, before being relayed directly to the national tallying centre in form of an image, for verification and comparison with physical results delivered by constituency returning officers.
The People Daily has established that the commission has already forwarded the draft proposals to the National Assembly’s Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs (JLAC) chaired by Kangema MP Muturi Kigano, and is awaiting response to enable it prepare a Bill.
Yesterday, Kigano neither responded to our calls nor short text messages but Marjan insisted that time is running out for the amendments that are aimed at improving the electoral process.
He said JLAC had not responded to their proposals even after holding several meetings with the team in a bid to convince them over the urgency.
“We met them (committee) in Mombasa, and those proposals were discussed. They were in agreement with some proposals while they had issues with others.
But we shall continue pushing on with our demands,” Marjan said in a telephone interview.
National; Assembly Leader of Majority Amos Kimunya said there was a possibility that Parliament could be recalled either immediately after Christmas or early next year to relook at the proposals.
“It is something that we are aware of and modalities are being worked on to see the best way to handle it. We are evaluating all possible avenues, whether to recall Parliament immediately after Christmas or early in the new year," Kimunya said.
