August vote will go on, says Kenya election boss

A court ruling allowing prisoners to vote at the referendum has thrown the electoral commission into confusion.

It has also complicated the whole referendum business, putting the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) in a position where it might not fully comply with a court order.

Election boss Issack Hassan is certain that the ruling will not interfere with the referendum on August 4, but he also admits the commission faces a logistical nightmare.

“We received this ruling with surprise and we expect to face major logistical challenges. We have been consulting with the Prisons Department and our legal team in order to weigh the implication and look at the options that we have,” he said.

Special court

On Wednesday, the Interim Independent Constitutional Dispute Resolution Court (IICDRC), a special court established to hear cases arising from review process, decided that prisoners should be allowed to vote in the referendum. Under the current law, prisoners do not vote. It ordered the IIEC to ensure that prisoners of sound mind among Kenya’s 53,000 inmates are registered in three weeks’ time.

The same court was on Thursday asked by a local NGO to call off the referendum and compel the election commission to register Kenyans living abroad as voters. On prisoners, Mr Hassan said they would have to seek extra funding from the Treasury to cater for the new costs.

The IIEC is also consulting with the Prisons Department to get a list of all inmates and those who would be eligible to vote in line with the court order. Prisons would also have to be gazetted as voting centres, which might take some time. Election commissioners are meeting on Friday morning to figure out how much money will be needed.

They will be expecting the government to foot the bill. “We have set up a team to do a budget, and tomorrow, we will meet to review all this information and make a decision on how we will run this exercise which has come unexpectedly,” Mr Hassan said. In a meeting between the commission and the Prisons officials on Thursday, it was pointed out that some of the prisoners may not have identity cards.

The meeting also queried why the Prisons Department had not been enjoined in the case. The case for Kenyans living abroad to be allowed to vote was brought by six people, among them activist Omtatah Okoiti. They are also asking the court to bar the Attorney-General, the IIEC and the Committee of Experts on the Constitution from conducting partisan civic education. Judge Violet Mavisi declined to do so until those institutions have had a chance to give their side of the story.

Account for funds

However, she certified the case as urgent, saying it needed to be determined before the referendum. The six also want the court to force the AG, the IIEC and the experts to provide a full account of public funds and resources so far used in the review process. They further want the court to bar the three institutions from using public money for civic education without competitive bidding.

In addition, they want the three institutions barred from facilitating or funding any further civic education or political campaign of any party. In an affidavit sworn in support of the case, Mr Okoiti and Prof Barrack Obonyo said their constitutional and legal rights to participate fully in the review process has been compromised.

The two said they had a right of access to the verbatim record of the proceedings and meetings of the Committee of Experts. Both the AG and the Committee of Experts, they said, have continued to engage in partisan civic education and political campaigns to the prejudice of their rights to a fully free and fair national referendum.

They say Kenyans will suffer irreparable damage should the referendum proceed and the proposed constitution come into force with the attendant irreversible repeal of their constitutional rights. The balance of convenience, they argue, favours caution and legitimacy in the review process and not a divisive referendum tainted with illegitimacy and illegality. The case will be heard in the presence of all the concerned parties on Monday.