Speaker Muturi accuses Treasury, SRC of delaying recruitment of election team

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi at Safari Park Hotel and Casino in Nairobi on September 1, 2016. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • In a hard-hitting statement that sought to absolve Parliament from blame for delay in recruitment of new election team, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi says Treasury has not come up with send-off package more than a month after a joint select committee formed to look into ways to reform the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ahead of the next election recommended that its commissioners be paid off in order to vacate office.

  • He also says Salaries and Remuneration Commission is yet to utter a word on the matter since Parliament passed the committee’s report and subsequent Bills that were developed by the joint team.

  • The Speaker says recruitment of new commissioners will only happen when the commissioners leave office.

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has accused the National Treasury and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission of delaying the recruitment of a new election team by failing to develop a send-off package for its outgoing team.

In a hard-hitting statement that sought to absolve Parliament from blame for the delay, Mr Muturi said Treasury has not come up with the package more than a month after a joint select committee formed to look into ways to reform the agency ahead of the next election recommended that they be paid off in order to vacate office.

He also said SRC was yet to utter a word on the matter since Parliament passed the committee’s report and subsequent Bills that were developed by the joint team.

In the statement from Tehran, Iran, where he is on official duty, the Speaker said the recruitment of new commissioners will only happen when the commissioners leave office.

“There needs to be a vacancy to necessitate recruitment. That requires resignation of the current occupiers of those offices, but as you will painfully realise again, there is no law requiring their exit, save for the gentleman’s agreement with the current holders that they should vacate,” he said.

But in a rejoinder, Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria appealed to Mr Muturi and his Senate counterpart Ekwe Ethuro to convene an emergency sitting of the two Houses to create a committee before September 30, which will oversee the establishment of a new commission.

‘NEW LAWS’

“The capability of the IEBC to conduct party nominations and the new laws we passed appear to be at serious risk. In the backdrop of this, the reform process we negotiated has neither an owner, a manager or a midwife. The country will pay a heavy price for this intransigence,’ he warned.

The committee chaired by senators James Orengo and Kiraitu Murungi that was formed to find a common ground following weeks of protests calling for IEBC commissioners to leave office suggested that the best way to replace them was for them to receive a send-off package.

This was after the committee found no evidence to back accusations by the Opposition that it mismanaged the last presidential polls won by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

When the commissioners, led by Chairman Issack Hassan, appeared before the committee they agreed to vacate but only if they got a dignified exit.

Mr Hassan said they had served with honour and deserved a similar treatment as they quit.

Mr Muturi expressed concern that such an exit was yet to be prepared.

“There are no offers from National Treasury coupled with (the) loud silence by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to facilitate execution of this agreement by the current occupiers to vacate office. By and by, the country might be losing the goodwill of this gentlemen’s agreement as time flies towards the next General Election,” the Speaker said.

IMPLEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS

The nine commissioners are still in office despite the agreement and already the Opposition is questioning the speed in implementing the recommendations by the select committee.

Recently, Mr Orengo said the agreed timelines had not been adhered to and that there was a risk that another crisis may emerge due to inaction.

“Any day lost in the preparation of the national elections is an invitation to an electoral crisis and chaos of monstrous proportions,” the senator said in a statement.

Mr Muturi said it was wrong to direct the blame at Parliament saying it work was merely to offer “mid-wifely services” to constitute of the IEBC.

He termed those trying to blame him as “political Einsteins” out to gain political mileage in the media.

“It is succinctly understandable (that) political Einsteins will go around fooling the country that Parliament is not hastening the process of hiring the polls commissioners merely to earn airtime in the media,” he added.

A Treasury official who requested not to be quoted or named said they were yet to receive a package to act on and that the matter was with the Salaries commission.

Salaries team head Sarah Serem did not pick calls or respond to text messages by the Nation requesting her response to the accusations.