We are ready for poll in August, asserts agency amid queries

With just over 300 days to go to the General Election, some Kenyans and diplomats are asking whether the country is ready for the polls.

Despite the August 8 date being anchored in the Constitution, those expressing their reservations are concerned that the date may not be tenable given the recent legal and regulatory occurrences at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) 10 months to the General Election.

The electoral commission has itself expressed concerns on the implications of sections of the new laws, even as it maintained that the election date is fixed for August 8, next year.

“For the avoidance of doubt, despite the happenings, the commission is gearing towards the August 2017 General Election,” said commission Secretary Ezra Chiloba.

The Joint Parliamentary Select Committee that was co-chaired by Senators James Orengo and Kiraitu Murungi had proposed that a new and lean commission be put in place by September 30, a proposal that was adopted by Parliament and which formed part of the new law.

But the September 30 deadline passed even before the names of the nine-member panel that is to recruit the new commissioners was forwarded to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi forwarded the list of nominees on October 6.

The law also puts on hold the planned second phase of voter registration until the existing voter register is audited.

According to the electoral commission, this was to start in December 2016.

An invitation to bidders to submit their Expression of Interest to conduct the audit will be published Monday. 

NO REASON TO POSTPONE

As a result of the changes, Nyamira Senator Mong’are Okong’o has said that elections should be pushed to another date probably December 2017 or even March 2018.

“The ambitious timeline by the joint parliamentary committee to put in place IEBC commissioners by September 30 has already lapsed and the earliest we can have a commission is late November or early December,” Mr Okong’o said.

But Mr Chiloba said there is no vacuum in the commission as the commissioners are serving their term of notice and will hand over to a new team.

But Mr Okong’o’s fears are not isolated as Sunday Nation understands that some within the circle of European diplomats have their reservations about the August elections.

But IEBC insists: “We do not believe the new timelines affect the August election date. What the commission is concerned about is the fact that some of those timelines are too limiting and sometimes overlapping with potential to cause disorder in the manner in which election operations are run. They do not affect the election date,” said Mr Chiloba.

He added that “there is nothing outside the norm that cannot be addressed in the next few months before elections. What we need is the goodwill of all actors to ensure that credible elections are realised in August 2017”.

Besides the structural and procedural questions, the senator said there is also the question of the budgetary constraints at IEBC since they were allocated Sh19 billion this financial year, which is about 40 per cent of what they had requested.

The Kriegler Commission that inquired into the 2007 General Election had recommended that legal and regulatory reforms should be completed at least two years to the election date to remove the anxiety.

Two members of the Joint Parliamentary Select Committee, Suna East MP Junet Mohamed and his Gatundu South counterpart Moses Kuria, also see no compelling reason to postpone the elections or make the country worried.

“The electoral commission is an institution which has both the commissioners and the secretariat who are expected to be working in sync. I don’t see anything that has been lost.

"In regard to the appointment of the new commissioners, I think there will be a delay of about 30 days but we hope the new commissioners will find a way to recoup that time,” said Mr Mohamed.

HAVE FAITH

According to Mr Kuria, the country cannot afford to postpone elections.

“Commissioners will come and find the work under way. We have a fairly competent secretariat and in fact we are looking forward to the formation of the broad-based procurement team which we proposed in our report and became part of the Act to fast-track the issues being raised regarding procurement.”

The select committee had proposed the team to comprise Information Communication Technology Authority, Public Procurement Oversight Authority, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Kenya National Audit Office.

Ugenya MP David Ochieng’, who in 2014 unsuccessfully sponsored a constitutional amendment bill to change the election date to December, also says that while the concerns of disruptions at IEBC are matters of concern, they are not enough at the moment to cause postponement.

“Despite what has happened, I believe we can still hold elections by August 2017 and Kenyans should remember that there is no vacuum in IEBC simply because there is a delay in appointing new commissioners.

Senator Mong’are is basing his arguments on the Kriegler recommendations which cannot oust clear provisions of the law in regard to the election date,” said Mr Ochieng’.

According to the Ugenya MP, the law has reasonable timelines and only needs “some measure of flexibility” in order for election preparations to be in place by January 2017.

“The same law has clearly delineated the roles of the commissioners and the secretariat. Now that we have agreed on the timelines and the transparency mechanisms regarding among others procurement, politicians should desist from interfering with the commission. We should have faith in what we have created,” added Mr Ochieng’.