Joint select panel on IEBC reforms dismisses House team report
Senators Johnson Muthama (Machakos) and Kiraitu Murungi (Meru), members of the joint Select Committee on the fate of the electoral body, speak during their first session at Safari Park Hotel on July 15, 2016. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The Chepkong'a team is Tuesday afternoon expected to table its report on IEBC.
- Mr Murungi and Mr Orengo were speaking at Ufungamano House in Nairobi during a multi-sectoral forum organised by the religious leaders on electoral reforms.
- Mr Orengo said that the joint select committee was a result of a joint process that was superior to any other process.
The joint parliamentary select committee on electoral commission reforms has dismissed the views of a National Assembly committee that absolved the team of any blame over the 2013 electoral failures.
The co-chairmen of the committee, senators James Orengo and Kiraitu Murungi, instead said the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, led by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkong'a, should hand over the report to them as part of a wider view of considerations.
"In fact, we would like that report brought to us to consider it as part of a wider mandate we have.
“The Chepkong'a team only looked at one petition, but what we are now doing is looking at the electoral system as a whole," said Mr Murungi, the senator for Meru.
The Chepkong'a team is on Tuesday afternoon expected to table its report on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in which it has cleared the commissioners of any wrongdoing.
Mr Murungi and Mr Orengo were speaking at Ufungamano House in Nairobi during a multi-sectoral forum organised by religious leaders on electoral reforms.
'DELIBERATE CONFUSION'
Narc-Kenya 2013 presidential candidate Martha Karua, who also addressed the meeting, called the Chepkong'a team a "deliberate confusion."
"The team has said it has cleared IEBC. Of what? Are they a court of law? What exactly were they investigating? All they could do was dismiss the petition before them," said Ms Karua.
Mr Orengo said the joint select committee was a result of a joint process that was superior to any other process.
Mr Murungi said the committee would ask the National Assembly Speaker to stop the work of the Chepkong'a team, saying they were interfering with what he said was a process accepted by all Kenyans.
Religious leaders, led by Bishop Peter Karanja of the National Council of Churches of Kenya and Eldoret Diocese's Bishop Cornelius Korir, said the select committee should be left to handle the IEBC issue.
"We don't know the Chepkong'a committee. They were there and still people were going to the streets. Now the select team is what we have and they should do the job,” said Bishop Korir.
