Senate to meet over election laws

The legal affairs gets views from the public. The committee, chaired by Mr Amos Wako, will present its report to the Senate for debate. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Cord says nothing short of an electronic system with a backup of a similar nature should be used during the General Election later this year, while Jubilee argues that a manual register should serve as fall-back.
  • Governors, media owners, the business community and civil society have supported an electronic backup, particularly in the identification and transmission of results to curb malpractices.
  • ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru and Attorney-General Githu Muigai are for a manual backup.
  • Cord sees an electronic system as the only guarantor of a credible election, while Jubilee maintains that no technology is foolproof.

Failure by MPs to pass regulations to govern a Sh1 billion oversight fund could influence senators as they meet on Thursday over the contentious election laws.

Meanwhile, MPs from both sides of the political divide have maintained their hardline positions regarding the changes made to the elections law.

Cord says nothing short of an electronic system with a backup of a similar nature should be used during the General Election later this year, while Jubilee argues that a manual register should serve as fall-back.

Some senators view consideration of the Elections (Amendment) Bill as an appropriate opportunity to return a harsh verdict on their colleagues in the National Assembly and the Executive.

In September last year, senators from both sides of the political divide said they would ignore Bills referred to them for approval by the National Assembly in protest at the move by MPs to reject regulations to govern the oversight fund.

Speaker Ekwee Ethuro has called a special sitting to enable the lawmakers to adopt or reject a report from the Legal Affairs Committee chaired by Busia Senator Amos Wako.

The committee was asked to collect public views on the Bill passed by MPs in a chaotic session on December 22.

On Wednesday, Mr Wako was upbeat that reason would prevail in the 11-member team; five from Jubilee and four Cord, as it retired to write a report.

“The committee is made up of top lawyers. My appeal has been that we approach this issue professionally,” he said.

The bone of contention in the Bill is the section that allows the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to have an “alternative mechanism” for identification of voters and transmission of results should the technology fail.

APPROVE AMENDMENTS

“We agreed not to be partisan because that will defeat the purpose of having a committee,” Mr Wako said.

When committee members don’t agree through consensus, they put the matter to a vote.

But the turning point will be when the report is debated by the House, which will be expected to either approve the amendments to the Bill as they were forwarded from the National Assembly or reject them.

Should the Bill pass, it will go to President Kenyatta for assent. A mediation committee with equal numbers of members from the two Houses would be created if the Bill is voted down.

Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetang’ula said anybody advancing the narrative of tyranny of numbers wants to take the country in the wrong direction.

“A fair contest is based on a law acceptable to everybody and a law that guarantees fairness,” the Ford-K lawmaker told the Nation.

Going by the views presented to the committee, Kenyans would prefer the General Election to be backed up manually and electronically.

Governors, media owners, the business community and civil society have supported an electronic backup, particularly in the identification and transmission of results to curb malpractices.

Government officials, including ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru and Attorney-General Githu Muigai, are for a manual backup with a rider that the system should be reverted to, “as a last resort”. Religious leaders, on the other hand, appear divided.

Ol Kalou MP Muriithi Waiganjo said the debate on whether to have a manual backup or not was informed by politics.

“All the signs have been there. First it was forcing out the electoral commission without any ready replacement, formation of a selection panel of which the opposition haggled over its membership causing unnecessary delay, then failing to agree with the recommendation of that panel. This looks as if Cord wants the elections delayed,” he said.

CREDIBLE ELECTION

Suna East MP Junet Mohammed said Cord’s position had not changed.

“Kenyans have given their views to the Senate committee. They want an electronic system. If there has to be any backup, then it should be electronic,” he said.

Cord sees an electronic system as the only guarantor of a credible election, while Jubilee maintains that no technology is foolproof and that the country would be walking down a dangerous path without a manual backup.

Mr Waiganjo said Kenyans should separate Jubilee from the Executive, adding that the National Assembly was only endorsing the IEBC position.

of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, which is also in favour of a manual register being used to identify and verify those who have voted in case of the automated system fails.

He said the fact that those presenting views before the Senate committee from both coalitions had presented hardline positions, with no middle ground being offered, pointed to politics as the main driver of the emerging positions, saying the decision to have a manual register, should be seen as an executive decision and not Cord or Jubilee affair.

According to the MP, it was inevitable that the changes to the law would be passed, since the country would not risk going into an election without an alternative mechanism.

The Senate hearings are the culmination of an acrimonious debate in Parliament, in which Jubilee MPs rushed through the changes in the Election Law (Amendment) Bill that resulted in Cord calling for street protests to have the changes reversed.