House team plans to break stalemate on IEBC

Members of the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee have started informal discussions to break the deadlock over the current electoral commission, according to multiple sources.

This comes as Cord maintains it will continue with its push to have the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission disbanded, and will hold countrywide protests on Monday in all IEBC offices to push for the ouster of the commissioners.

Cord leader Raila Odinga’s spokesman Dennis Onyango said: “It is no longer a Cord affair. Many other forces are coming on board.”

But electoral commission chairman Issack Hassan said last week that commissioners will not resign unless Cord can provide evidence that they will favour Jubilee during the polls. He also said they would leave as long as the law is followed in removing them.

Chairman of the Justice committee Samuel Chepkonga and some four MPs met and agreed to do something, a member of the committee said.

The whole committee met on Tuesday and again on Friday, the source who sought anonymity so as not to jeopardise the talks said.

Mr Chepkonga did not respond to our enquiries, but committee member and Oljororok MP John Waiganjo confirmed that discussions are going on. He, however, said it would be pre-judicial to discuss committee affairs with the media.

“We are trying to get a legal framework to guide the process for a fair transition in the event the commissioners decide to leave on their own volition or a petition is brought to Parliament and succeeds,” Mr Waiganjo said.

The committee is engaged in talks to have Parliament amend the law on the selection panel that interviews and pick commissioners.
When the current commission was appointed, the President and prime minister each nominated two people to the seven-member selection panel. This was done by Mr Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki.

POLITICAL PARTY FRAMEWORKS

Other members of the panel were from the Association of Professional Societies in East Africa, the Judicial Service Commission and the Kenya Anti-Corruption Advisory Board.
The panel was chaired by Dr Ekuru Aukot who had been nominated by Mr Odinga while the vice chairperson was Marion Mutungi who was President Kibaki’s nominee. Other members of the panel were Mwanyangela Ngali, Rosa Buyu, Isaac Lenaola, Irene Keino and Sophie Moturi.

The committee members said that if the commissioners were to leave, the President will more or less single-handedly appoint the selection panel and eventually the commissioners because there is no prime minister.

This is what they want to change and they are working to have the selection panel come from the broad political party frameworks. That panel would advertise the positions and interview candidates, the committee members told Sunday Nation.

Once this has been firmed up, they will talk to religious bodies, political parties and others.

Apart from the selection panel, the Chepkonga committee is also working to reduce the number of commissioners to five who will work on a part-time basis by changing the law.

The members said only after that can they ask the current commissioners to exit. Committee members said they expect to make their discussions public by the end of next week.

Mr Onyango said Cord was not aware of discussions in the committee or any other forum to disband the commission. The 2013 presidential candidate Prof James ole Kiyiapi has supported the move to remove the commissioners.

“The electoral commission is a referee and when one side says they do not think you will give them justice, a referee should not hang in there,” Prof Kiyiapi said.

NOISE LOUD ENOUGH

Prof Kiyiapi however warned that Cord should not vandalise people’s property when demonstrating, saying the noise “was loud enough” for the electoral commission.

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen, however, accused Cord of being insincere.

“Cord’s push is not even about the electoral commission. It is their excuse to revive their increasingly waning popularity and divert attention from internal issues in Cord,” said Mr Murkomen.

The Elgeyo Marakwet Senator said that he will support the removal of the commissioners only if it follows the Constitution, that is, through Parliament to fire the commissioners or by asking them to voluntarily resign.

ODM director of political affairs Opiyo Wandayi says time is ripe for the election chiefs to quit.

“We asked for dialogue on electoral reforms, they refused. We proposed a referendum to change the Constitution, the electoral commission scuttled it. Now we have no option other than mass action,” said Mr Wandayi, who is the Ugunja MP.

Former electoral commisison chief executive James Oswago also waded into the matter telling off the commissioners for singling out Mr Odinga and Cord as the only ones who want them to leave.
“Showing defiance and hatred towards to any political formation or individual is a sure invitation to chaos,” Mr Oswago said in response to Mr Hassan’s statement on Thursday.

In the statement, Mr Hassan picked out Mr Odinga whom he said had claimed publicly in media interviews that the commissioners have entered into an agreement with the Jubilee Coalition and the president to rig the next election in return for jobs.

“This is not true. We want to dare him to produce and publish any evidence today and we will resign immediately. This character assassination of public officials is not what we expect from our leaders,” said Mr Hassan.

But Mr Oswago believes that’s a wrong approach to take because the commission is now playing into the hands of the Cord leader and his supporters.

Additional reporting by Patrick Langat