Remove poll materials, IEBC orders all candidates
What you need to know:
So pervasive was the trend that the Kenya National Highways Authority has now set a Sh85, 000 fine for any politician whose poster will be found on any of its installations.
The materials have been littering fields and walls as torn billboards fall over in towns and on highways.
The electoral commission has ordered all candidates, agents and political parties to remove the campaign materials they erected in the August 8 elections within 7 days.
In a warning letter, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said failure to remove such materials would attract sanctions, that include fines or, in extreme cases, being barred from participating in future elections.
POLLUTION
“You are required to remove all banners, billboards, placards and posters erected during the election period within seven days of this notice, failing which the commission shall impose sanctions,” Mr Chebukati said in the notice dated August 22.
With 14, 552 candidates that were battling for Kenya’s 1, 882 elective seats, the amount of environmental pollution in the 10-week campaign period was enormous.
The politicians had gone all out to sell themselves, erecting billboards, pinning posters, and positioning banners on every tree, wall, and space they could find.
So pervasive was the trend that the Kenya National Highways Authority has now set a Sh85, 000 fine for any politician whose poster will be found on any of its installations.
The materials have been littering fields and walls as torn billboards fall over in towns and on highways.
NEMA
Last week, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko became the second politician after Starehe MP parliamentary elections loser Boniface Mwangi to launch a campaign to pull down all his campaign posters.
The warning by Mr Chebukati comes after a similar one by the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) that required all candidates to pull down the billboards, banners and posters, to prevent environmental pollution.
The authority said that candidates have the option of paying a fee, the environment deposit bond, to facilitate clearance of the posters.
The fee is usually deposited in the Nema Environment Restoration Fund account.
The deposit bond has also been extended to other areas, including industrial plants and factories, which also have effect on the environment.
