One hurdle halts select team march to new-look electoral commission

The joint select committee of Parliament on electoral reforms are yet to agree on the number of commissioners that will sit in a new team to manage the 2017 General Election.

While the ruling Jubilee coalition wants nine commissioners on a full-time basis, Cord wants them to be part-time and fewer than nine as currently constituted with reports indicating that the opposition has settled on between three and five officials.

A source from Jubilee indicated that its team, which is led by Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi, had proposed full-time commissioners given the heavy workload lined up for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in an election year.

“Cord have insisted that the commissioners be on a part-time basis but become permanent in an election year,” said a source at the meeting. “We are wondering what they want.

“That is the point at which the talks are.”

The 14-member team was set to meet the House leadership of the Senate and the National Assembly on Monday to appraise them on some of its proposals that will go to the final report and also win its support.

However, things reportedly took a new turn at Monday’s meeting after the two sides started haggling over the remaining unresolved issue: The number of commissioners and their terms of service.

CONTENTIOUS ISSUES

That is the only sticking point after the committee completed its work on Friday following 30 days of discussions which led to the members agreeing on at least seven hitherto contentious issues.

The team reportedly left the talks at Windsor Golf and Country Club in Kiambu County on Friday night with the Cord side, chaired by Siaya Senator James Orengo, tasked with coming up with the composition of the proposed new-look IEBC and their Jubilee colleagues committing to accept whatever decision would be reached by their counterparts.

However, the two sides appeared to have differed on the outstanding issue with Jubilee MPs reportedly complaining about the “killing of the Public Service Commission”, whose role in recruiting commissioners Cord had initially opposed. Cord later agreed to PSC contributing some members and the selection panel’s secretariat.

Jubilee reportedly said at the meeting that future elections would be conducted by the PSC, arguing that Kenyans could lose faith in the commission if it was not allowed to competitively recruit members of independent commissions.

“It’s only for this year that we will discuss the composition of the selection panel to appoint IEBC commissioners,” said a source who could, however, not be identified as discussing committee matters.

SETTLED ON FOUR MEMBERS

“We want, in future, the role to be left entirely to the PSC, which should be anchored in law.”
The select team has settled on four members drawn from the PSC, which will also provide the secretariat, and one each from the Catholic Church, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) and Supkem to form the selection panel.

Cord had proposed that the two coalitions each provide two members to the commission, which was also the position of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament. But that is likely to remain mere proposals since it is the recommendations of the joint select team that will take precedence.

Although the PSC is a professional and independent body tasked with recruiting State officers on merit, Cord had argued that it was part of the Executive and was, therefore, likely to play partisan to the ruling coalition. That was, however, dismissed by Jubilee lawmakers as an attack on the Constitution, which recognises the PSC as independent.

Late Monday, it was not clear whether the House leadership had approved a one-year extension of the select committee’s term, which it has sought in a bid to oversee the full implementation of its proposals on electoral reforms.

However, a member of the Justice committee, Kiharu MP Irungu Kang’ata, said the extension was a scheme to earn extra allowances and transform the team into a “super committee”. He said a two-weeks extension was adequate.

Among the committee’s raft of proposals is the hiring an audit firm of international repute to clean up the voters register in a bid to ensure the August 8, 2017 elections are free and fair.