IEBC to ask for dissolution of coalition by October

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) says it will submit a petition to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to dissolve the Grand Coalition government by October in order to hold General election before January 2013.

IEBC Chairman Isaack Hassan said the letter containing the proposal will be handed to the coalition's principals on Friday.

Mr Hassan made the announcement moments after presenting IEBC's preliminary revised report on new electoral units to the Parliamentary Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs on Thursday.

The report proposes creation of 80 new constituencies and a review of wards within them.

In the proposed constituencies, the giant Embakasi constituency has been sub-divided into Embakasi East, Embakasi South, Embakasi Central, Embakasi North and Embakasi West.

Other proposed constituencies in Nairobi are Mathare, Ruaraka, Roysambu, Kilimani and Kibra.

Voters dissatisfied with the boundary changes proposed by the IEBC can still make written submissions to Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee until Friday, February 17.

Committee chairman Njoroge Baiya, while receiving IEBC's report, said his team will only take written submissions due to time limitations.

"We will only take written memorandums on any issue or grievance from MPs or voters. The deadline is February 21," said Mr Baiya.

The committee will have 14 days to study the IEBC report. Thereafter it will present the report to Parliament for debate for seven days.

The report will then be taken back to the IEBC with or without amendments.

Enclaves

The IEBC, while presenting its report, raised the red flag about some Kenyans who were out to exploit the boundaries review exercise to create ethnic and political enclaves.

This push to create ethnic zones plus a notion in the public that the review process was somehow linked to resource allocation are some of the difficulties that the commission had to contend with as it sought public views on the best method to create 80 new constituencies and 1,450 wards for the country’s 47 counties.

“The word ‘boundary’ seems to evoke feelings of conflict and strife among some people. It is unfortunate that a number of proposals ask for tribal or clan territories,” the IEBC chairman, Mr Issack Hassan said as he handed over the report at Nairobi’s County Hall.

He added that the clique out to push for the creation of “homogenous electoral enclaves” had cited the provisions of the Constitution obligating the IEBC to consider community interest, historical, economic and cultural ties, as legitimate reasons for new electoral zones.

“The commission cannot yield to such selfish motives… It is not possible to grant every wish. Even where communities wanted to be together because of common interest, it is not possible to carve out pure breed zones. Kenyans must learn to tolerate and accommodate each other,” said Mr Hassan.

He revealed the initial report released on January 9 this year had attracted 1,970 submissions from the public, a response which he termed as “remarkable”. Also, he noted that owing to the political significance of the exercise, the public expectations “were high and sometimes unrealistic”.

“We are happy that we are on time. We believe that we’ve done a good job,” the IEBC chairman said. “(Kenyans) have spoken and we have listened.”