MPs set to debate Bill to change August election date

The National Assembly is on Wednesday scheduled to start debate on the Bill to change the date of the General Elections from August to December.

A Notice Paper published on Tuesday on the business of the House Wednesday morning shows that the Second Reading of the Bill by Ugenya MP David Ochieng will kick off on Wednesday.

If it is passed, Mr Ochieng’s Bill will form the first amendment to the Constitution adopted in August 2010.

Mr Ochieng’s Bill was taken over by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, on which he sits, and will require the support of at least two-thirds of each of the Houses as it goes through each stage in Parliament.

The idea has the backing of a majority of the House leadership, who are convinced that the shift in the election date is good for both practical and sentimental reasons.

“It had been decided long before that the best date for election is December,” Mr Ochieng said at a meeting of the House leadership in Mombasa earlier in the year.

NEW YEAR, NEW GOVT
“Most Kenyans aspire that elections be done when they are not very busy. Let’s have elections in December and start the year with a new government.”
He argued that with an election in August, a challenge of the presidential result in the Supreme Court would complicate matters for the country and the electoral commission.
A run-off of the presidential election would have to be held within 60 days of the General Election and the timelines on the release of the election results and filing a petition at the Supreme Court would likely push it to November.
The terms of the current commissioners expire in November 2017 and are not renewable, meaning that a run-off would be close to or even after the date they are to leave office.
If the Constitution is changed and the General Election moved to December, this will also mean that a new set of inexperienced commissioners will be in charge.