IEBC: Now Kenyans asked to give views
What you need to know:
- The committee established through a consensus by Jubilee and Cord coalitions met on Friday and agreed to receive public views on July 25 and 26 at County Hall in Nairobi.
- The team is pressing on with its meetings despite concerns that parallel sittings by the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee chaired by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga could hamper its legitimacy and affect its work.
The joint parliamentary committee on the restructuring of the IEBC will hold public hearings in Nairobi for two days as the deadline to complete its work draws nearer.
The committee established through a consensus by Jubilee and Cord coalitions met on Friday and agreed to receive public views on July 25 and 26 at County Hall in Nairobi.
It has about 25 days to wind up its work and table its report in Parliament.
Interested citizens have been asked to present themselves before the joint House team co-chaired by Siaya Senator James Orengo and his Meru counterpart Kiraitu Murungi on the given dates or forward their memoranda to either Senate Clerk Jeremiah Nyegenye or National Assembly Clerk Justin Bundi by July 22.
“In accordance with its mandate, the Committee now invites members of the public to make distinct representations on recommendations on legal, policy and institutional reforms to strengthen the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) so as to ensure the August 2017 elections are free and fair and are administered in an impartial, efficient, simple, accurate, verifiable, secure, accountable and transparent manner,” said the committee in a statement released on Sunday.
Further, the committee will take views on the suitability of the IEBC commissioners; their credibility, impartiality, integrity; and independence.
They will also accept comments on Voter registration, education, nomination and registration of candidates, campaign management, publicity and media, use of Information Communication Technology in elections, voting process, transmission and declaration of election results, allocation of special seats, election observation, monitoring and evaluation and dispute resolution.
The team is pressing on with its meetings despite concerns that parallel sittings by the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee chaired by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga could hamper its legitimacy and affect its work.
Mr Chepkonga’s committee is looking into a petition lodged in the House seeking the removal of IEBC commissioners.
Some ODM MPs have warned that they will go back to the streets if the Legal committee does not halt its sittings.
