New polls team needs honest people: Bishop

A member of the poll agency’s selection panel has urged Kenyans of high integrity to apply for positions in the new team that will oversee the next General Election.

If such Kenyans don’t come forward, warned Bishop David Oginde, there was a risk of having untrustworthy people at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

In a message delivered on his behalf by Pastor Jotham Munene at Christ is the Answer Ministries, Valley Road, Nairobi, the bishop said the selection team could only pick the best from the applicants.

“Our mandate is to interview those who apply. Politicians have pleaded that ‘give us the good Christians’. If you believe you are the person or you know someone, let them apply,” he said.

Bishop Oginde, who represents the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, is one of the nine people that President Uhuru Kenyatta approved to sit on the selection panel that will pick the new poll commissioners.

Other members representing religious groups are Bernadette Musundi (Kenya Conference of Bishops), Peter Karanja (National Council of Churches of Kenya), Abdulghafur El-Busaidy (Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, National Muslim Leaders Forum and Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya), and Rajesh Rawal (Hindu Council of Kenya).

Jubilee settled on lawyers Evans Monari and Mary Karen Kigen-Sorobit to sit on the panel whereas Cord picked Rtd Justice Tom Mbaluto and Ms Olga Karani Chemweno as representatives of the Parliamentary Service Commission.

The appointments follows the resignation of the IEBC chair Issack Hassan and eight other commissioners after they struck a deal with the government to be given a ‘dignified’ send off package.

However, they will remain in office until new commissioners are appointed, something that has not gone down well with the opposition.

Parliament has already vetted the Chief Justice nominee David Maraga who if successful, is expected to swear in the select panel members before they start the recruitment process.

Within seven days of its appointment, the panel shall invite applications from qualified people and publish the names of all applicants and their qualifications for public scrutiny.

President Kenyatta encouraged public participation in the selection process to ensure the new IEBC chairman and commissioners had public confidence to conduct next year’s General election in a free and fair manner.

The opposition successfully managed to push the government into agreeing that the IEBC commissioners must vacate office to pave way for a new team, saying the current team as constituted had lost public trust.

The Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on electoral reforms co-chaired by Senators Kiraitu Murungi (Meru) and James Orengo (Siaya) spearheaded the process of resolving the stalemate over how the commissioners should vacate office.