Kivuitu team faces axe over poll riots

• Members of the Kriegler commission meet with President Kibaki at his Harambee House Office in Nairobi.
• Commission decided to call on the President to find out whether it would be acting within its mandate to draw up recommendations against ECK.
• Sources say team was prompted to meet President following strong proposals by LSK and IED.

On Wednesday, the team told the President that it would complete its work on time and submit a comprehensive report. So far, it has held public hearings in all provincial headquarters and received numerous written memoranda.

It has convened workshops on electoral systems, political parties, the media and the electoral commission.

The legal fraternity also pointed to the lack of power by the Kivuitu team to enforce electoral laws and code of conduct and the failure to computerise its operations as inadequacies that must be addressed.

In its submissions by Ms Elizabeth Marete, an Institute for Education in Democracy programme officer, said the ECK lacked autonomy.

It also questioned the procedures of appointing commissioners and pointed out the shortfalls and lack of financial autonomy as areas that needed to be corrected in far reaching reforms.

“Institute for Education in Democracy fully supports the electoral reform process and will stop at nothing to support the establishment of appropriate elections administration, elections management body and structures in Kenya,” she said.

The local chapter of the International Commission of Jurists had made similar recommendations.

When the commissioners went before the Kriegler team on Monday, led by vice chairman Kihara Mutu, they also called for wide ranging reforms in the electoral laws to enable them deal with challenges that normally arise during elections.

Urgent reforms

But as Mr Justice Kriegler agreed with them on the need for urgent reforms in the electoral commission, he criticised the team and told them that they were retrogressing instead of improving the country’s electoral system.

“It’s quite unfortunate that the country’s electoral systems are getting worse by the day...in fact the 1992 elections were better organised than 2007. That is why we are calling for these reforms in the commission,” he said.

This strong stance is likely to have been the reason that the retired judge decided to take his team to the President and seek his assurance that their recommendations on the electoral commission would not be thrown aside on grounds that they acted beyond their mandate.