We are ready for talks on IEBC, says Ruto

Deputy President William Ruto with Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri and MPs Kimani Ichungua, Ferdinand Waititu and Moses Kuria (partly hidden) and Equity Bank Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi (right) at Gachika village, Gatundu South Constituency, Kiambu County during a funeral service. PHOTO | DPPS

What you need to know:

  • The DP said the Opposition cannot employ protests and threats to coerce the government and no one will be removed from office through unconstitutional means.

  • On Tuesday, Mr Odinga said he had written to President Uhuru Kenyatta urging him to start talks. He said in the letter that Cord does not need lectures from the electoral commission or its chairman.

The government is ready for talks over the fate of the electoral commission ahead of the next elections.

Deputy President William Ruto said the talks should be led by Parliament but religious leaders, civil society, professional groups and the public can participate.

As he spoke in Gatundu South Constituency,  Kiambu County on Wednesday, lawmakers from both sides of the House differed on how to   reconstitute the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission during a sitting of joint committee of MPs and senators, signalling a fresh round of stone-walling.

Cord leader Raila Odinga, on Tuesday,  said they would continue with weekly Monday demonstrations at the electoral commission offices in Nairobi.

The DP said the Opposition cannot employ protests and threats to coerce the government and no one will be removed from office through unconstitutional means.

“We cannot resolve our problems through threats and intimidation. We have a Constitution that we should abide by,” he said.

Mr Ruto said they are ready to use the means provided for in the Constitution to solve issues over the electoral commission.

“We are ready and willing to engage in talks. We want a coherent, logical and legal way to resolve any issue,” Mr Ruto said adding MPs should spearhead the talks which will include views from religious leaders, civil society, professionals and any other Kenyan.

“We have MPs who can sit and resolve this issue through Constitutional means. Parliament should provide the forum for Kenyans to speak their mind,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr Odinga said he had written to President Uhuru Kenyatta urging him to start talks. He said in the letter that Cord does not need lectures from the electoral commission or its chairman.

In the letter, Mr Odinga revisited the June 20, 2014 call to President Kenyatta to discuss national unity, electoral reforms, devolution, corruption and insecurity.

“It is about 22 months now since I wrote to you regarding the need for structured national dialogue on various matters of grave national interest that faced this country then,” the letter reads.

He expressed regret that to date, Mr Kenyatta had not responded to his concerns and that he had instead received “flippant and deriding remarks” from senior members of the Jubilee coalition.

As a result, Cord members had resorted to using demonstrations to voice their concerns, he said.

“On behalf of the Cord fraternity, I hereby renew this call and restate the commitment of the members of Cord to an orderly and peaceful deliberation on our challenges,” Mr Odinga explained in the letter.

In his 2014 letter to the President, the Cord leader made it clear he had chosen dialogue as the lawful and sensible way of dealing with problems facing the country.

“There are obvious signs that if we do not confront these challenges now through a structured process of national dialogue, then the road to peace will be thorny and difficult,” he had said.

Yesterday, Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi said all Kenyans should be involved in the talks to reshape the commission. “They should embrace broader consultations that go beyond Parliament to include religious leaders, civil society and professionals,” he said in a statement.

In Parliament, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale welcomed the setting up of a joint committee of the assembly and the Senate to discuss electoral reforms, “but not removal of the IEBC commissioners, as mode of doing so is articulated in law.”

“If Parliament gets a petition with sufficient grounds for the removal of the commission, even as Jubilee we will support it. Calls for dialogue by Cord on how to constitute the commission amounts to a constitutional coup,” he said.

Mr Duale said the Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group deal in 1997 was a gentleman’s agreement between President Moi’s government and the opposition but was not anchored in law and therefore could not be implemented.

Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma said Jubilee and Cord agreed a selection panel for a fresh electoral commission team would include two members from each coalition, but both were yet to decide on how to nominate the fifth member, who would also serve as chairman.

The chairman of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, Mr Samuel Chepkonga, said his committee is open to receive a petition by a Kenyan on removal of the commission, saying jubilee had no reason to “protect the IEBC.”

In Gatundu, MPs who accompanied Mr Ruto during a funeral service for Lucia Njoki Mungai at Kamuguri village asked the Cord  to stop threats and intimidation.

MPs Ferdinand Waititu (Kabete), Kimani Ichungwa (Kikuyu) and Moses Kuria (Gatundu South) asked Cord leader Raila Odinga to stop threats and protests.