Petition against IEBC rejected

A bid to kick out nine members of the electoral commission was thrown out on Wednesday.

MPs on Wednesday evening agreed with a report of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and rejected a petition that sought to have them removed.

The decision came at the end of a loud and raucous debate, with Jubilee MPs supporting the IEBC and their Cord counterparts, except a few, arguing that Mr Issack Hassan’s team should be shown the door.

The debate took political lines with overtones of current political issues, such as the Cord-steered referendum plan, with Jubilee MPs saying they would defeat the Opposition and Cord repeating their claim that the presidential election was stolen.

Jubilee MPs taunted the Opposition’s arguments against the committee’s report as only meant to show loyalty to the party, while Cord MPs accused Jubilee of protecting the commission because it helped them to win unfairly.

In the midst of all that was the admission by some members that the furore over the commission indicated a need for reform.

Even as they differed, with Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso having a hard time ensuring order, many of those who contributed admitted there was a need for changes at the IEBC.

Ms Priscilla Nyokabi (Nyeri County, TNA) said:  “Did the IEBC do a good job at the General Election? The answer is a complete yes. Did IEBC do a perfect job? Of course not; nobody is perfect.”

She said the committee realised that reforms were necessary on matters such as the voters register and to possibly have commissioners involved in running the commission.

“The petition that has been brought by Wafula Buke is a good petition as it allows the House to look at the issues with the IEBC, but the IEBC commissioners must be allowed to stay,” she said.

Mr Nicolas Gumbo (Rarieda, ODM) said despite the inability of Jubilee and Cord sides to agree on whether the commissioners should be sent home, it was obvious that changes were needed at the body.

“There are fundamental problems with the IEBC  and this House must come together and correct them if we’re looking at the electoral process which restores fidelity to the participants of that election,” he said.

Mr Chachu Ganya (North Horr, ODM) was the only Opposition MP who supported the report. “We have interacted with the IEBC in our constituencies. They were fair, they were honest and they were very free.”

However, he concurred that reforms were necessary at the commission, saying there were questions, such as the failure of some of the electronic voter identification devices (Evid) on March 4.

Ms Fatuma Ibrahim (Wajir County, ODM) joined Mr Ganya in going against the Opposition’s stand.

“In this country, we are going in a very dangerous direction; that if individuals or groups or parties are dissatisfied with an institution, they are going to disband or impeach.”

She said that when the IEBC members met the committee, they admitted that there were weaknesses at the institution that needed to be dealt with.

Ms Ibrahim said the House should concentrate on correcting those weaknesses.

Mr David Ochieng, (Ugenya, ODM) charged: “The Evid failed and it was designed to fail. The IEBC decided that it was going to fail.”

NOT PROPERLY TRAINED

He said the commissioners admitted to the committee that the machines were delivered a few days to the election and polling clerks were not properly trained.

“We know Jubilee stole fair and square and we are going to live with it,” Mr Ochieng said.

Tiaty MP Asman Kamama (URP) accused the Opposition of seeking to chose “their own referee”. “Even with the referendum, we’ll deal with you,” he said.

Mr Tom Kajwang (Ruaraka, ODM) said Parliament’s role was not to examine the evidence but find out whether there were sufficient grounds to have a tribunal formed to have a deeper look at the issues.