LSK meet Senate team over election laws
What you need to know:
- LSK President Isaac Okero said that the amendment had left it open for the electoral commission to employ any alternative mechanism as long as it was complementary.
- This, Mr Okero said, was not in the spirit of having an integrated electronic system as was in the law before the amendments by the National Assembly last Thursday.
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has dismissed as ambiguous an amendment that seeks to allow the electoral agency a “complementary” alternative to electronic system of voter identification and results transmission in the 2017 elections.
The amendment has been heavily disputed by the Opposition coalition saying it was a ploy to “resurrect dead voters to vote.”
LSK President Isaac Okero said the amendment had left it open for the electoral commission to employ any alternative mechanism as long as it was complementary.
This, Mr Okero said, was not in the spirit of having an integrated electronic system as was in the law before the amendments by the National Assembly last Thursday.
“That there is an electronic system only follows that we must have an electronic backup,” Mr Okero said at County Hall.
He added: “It will be impractical for one to plan for an electronic system and plan for its 100 per cent failure.”
He was speaking on Wednesday evening when he appeared before the Amos Wako-led Senate Legal Affairs and Human Rights committee.
The LSK was directed by Mr Wako to appear before the team again on January 3 with a report from its Information technology committee.
“Let us know from the LSK whether this dispute we have can be resolved through legislation or can be sorted out by regulations,” said Senator Stephen Sang, the committee’s vice-chair.
But Mr Okero told Mr Sang that since the amendment was in a legislation, there was no need to procure a regulation legislation.
Mombasa senator Hassan Omar had earlier in the session that was held after 5pm when the Senate adjourned its special Sitting, asked whether the LSK could relate its response on January 3 to practices in Ghana, a point overruled by the committee.
Other stakeholders including the IEBC, the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, the civil and human rights groups, will also have their day with the committee that is seeking a middle ground in the laws that were passed in a chaotic session by the National Assembly.
