MPs to vet election panel nominees next week

Parliament will from Tuesday next week begin vetting the 10 nominees who will in turn choose the managers of next year’s elections.

The chairman of the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC), Mr Abdikadir Mohammed, said the nominees chosen under the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Act (IEBC) will all be vetted that day and a report of their approval or rejection presented to the House.

He said that the notion that the House will not vet the nominees of the President and the Prime Minister was erroneous.

“Every nominee will be vetted,” said Mr Mohammed.

President Kibaki nominated retired diplomat Mwanyengela Ngali and Prof Marion Wanjiku Mutugi.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga nominated former Committee of Experts director Ekuru Aukot and Ms Rosa Akinyi Buyu, who was a member of the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission.

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) nominated High Court judge Isaac Lenaola and magistrate Emily Ominde to the panel.

The Association of Professional Societies of East African picked Dr William Okello Ogara and Ms Sophie Njeri Moturi while the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission advisory board sent Ms Irene Cheptoo Keino and Mr Charles Kariuki Wambugu.

Mr Mohammed added that while the selection panel comprised 7 people, Parliament will pick seven, so that the “political and professional concerns are balanced out.”

At the same time, the CIOC has asked the Attorney General Amos Wako and the Government Printer Mr Andrew Rukaria to publish a corrigendum indicating that the effective publication date of the IEBC Act was Monday July 18, in order to make the whole process legitimate.

The process could have been declared unconstitutional if the publication date on the Bill was left at July 5.

Meanwhile, the committee was told that the provincial administration won’t be scrapped under the new Constitution.

Local Government PS Karega Mutahi and the chairman of the National Taskforce of Devolved Governments, Mr Mutakha Kangu, said the whole system will be redesigned to fit in the devolution structure.

That, Mr Kangu said, might require the President, in 2013 to sit with all the governors from the 47 counties and map out how the two levels of government will work to foster development in the grassroots.

“It is not just the provincial commissioners, district commissioners, chief and their assistants. We have provincial officers in Agriculture, Education, Health, Medical Services and many more. It is the whole system (that will be restructured)” said Prof Mutahi adding that there was no cause for alarm.

Local Government Minister Musalia Mudavadi warned that the mood in parliament was for the abolition of the system and that the Executive needs not to bulldoze MPs into accepting to have chiefs post 2012.

“From where I sit, if one continues to be too rigid for Parliament, it will be wiser for the provincial administration to listen on what is going on out there. If you try to take Parliament head-on, Parliament is going to legislate differently. It is a serious matter,” Mr Mudavadi said.