AG Githu Muigai proposes new panel to set IEBC team’s exit package

A special committee will be formed to work on the standard compensation payable to the nine election chiefs before they leave office, Attorney-General Githu Muigai has said.

The AG spoke Thursday as President Uhuru Kenyatta received the report by the joint parliamentary select committee on electoral reforms that was co-chaired by Senators James Orengo (Siaya) and Kiraitu Murungi (Meru).

Prof Githu and the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, Mr Henry Rotich, said the government was yet to agree on the actual amount of money to be paid as compensation to the outgoing commissioners.

The AG said the team would compute all the benefits due to the commissioners as required by law before the National Treasury is directed to pay them.

“We have set up a team involving representatives from the Treasury, the State Law Office, and the Salaries and Remunerations Commission to work out the amount payable to each of the commissioners,” said Prof Githu.

He added that the team would only convene after the report is duly passed in the House and the exit process started.

Mr Rotich said his office was yet to work on the payments as Parliament had not concluded deliberations on the exit plan for the commissioners.

It is, however, expected that each of the nine commissioners will take home about Sh25 million in benefits and other compensations due to their abrupt exit.

But, even though the House team proposed that they should leave by September 30, IEBC chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan said the commissioners could not leave before their successors are appointed.

“What the select committee says is not the law,” said Mr Hassan. “Commissioners will be in the office until the new ones come.”

The IEBC reforms report was tabled in Parliament on Thursday moments after it was presented to President Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga.

The President said the joint committee had done an exemplary job against a background of tight deadlines. He called on MPs to expeditiously consider the report in accordance with parliamentary procedures and practice.

“The process of recruitment and appointment of new commissioners should commence urgently to ensure that the August 8, 2017 General Election is conducted on schedule by a body that enjoys broad confidence of Kenyans,” said President Kenyatta.

He urged MPs to consider the report, arguing that it was a product of wide consensus, and that the House should apply the same spirit during debate.

He spoke even as some MPs raised concerns over a few clauses in the proposal, which they want the plenary to amend when debate on the report begins.

Some MPs are uneasy about a proposal in the report aimed at curbing last-minute defections by nomination losers.