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Resignation is a viable option for IEBC team

Saturday July 02 2016
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Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Issack Hassan (second right) addresses the media at the agency's offices in Nairobi on May 5, 2016. He is flanked by IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba (second left) and commissioners Kule Galma Godana and Thomas Letangule. The commissioners now face the option of resigning as Members of Parliament investigate how they conducted the 2013 elections. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Commissioners of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) now face the option of resigning as Members of Parliament investigate how they conducted the 2013 elections.

A petition by Barasa Nyakuri to the Parliamentary Committee on Justice and Constitutional Affairs details how the IEBC led by Issack Hassan bungled the last elections ranging from failed technology to procurement scandal. These are the same allegations the opposition coalition Cord is planning to table before the select committee.

Norman Magaya, the chief executive officer of Cord, told The EastAfrican that the opposition has taken a position that those found culpable of electoral offences should be referred to the Director of Public Prosecution while the innocent ones are given severance packages for early retirement.

According to Mr Magaya, Cord accusations include tampering with the 2013 voter-register, and releasing three disparate results documents for 2013 to the parties, Supreme Court and parliament.

Others are deliberate collapsing of transmission equipment and procurement scandal reports that were prepared by the Public Procurement and Disposal Board and the Law Society of Kenya.

“We are going to demonstrate that IEBC failed in its mandate to professionally manage elections and maintain a credible voter register,” said Mr Magaya.

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However, the issue of the removal of commissioners remains a sticking point even as the government and the opposition agree to form a parliamentary select committee to discuss electoral reforms.

Legal experts say that the 14-member select committee made up of nominees from the ruling Jubilee Alliance and Cord could hit a gridlock in the removal of the commissioners.

John Waiganjo, a lawyer and a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, says the select committee in the eyes of the law, is “perfunctory.”

“The select committee is merely a talk shop to diffuse the political tension. Any decision to remove the commissioners other than the constitutional provision of a tribunal will be illegal,” said Mr Waiganjo.

READ: Stalemate puts integrity of Kenya elections at stake

However, the Constitution says that commissioners can only be removed after a petition to parliament that will then set up a tribunal for each of the commissioners accused.

The report adopted by the select committee will determine the number of Bills to be taken to parliament in regards to the reforms in the IEBC Act and the Elections Act, both of 2011. 

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