Involve all in polls planning

What you need to know:

  • The decision by the IEBC to develop the Strategic Plan 2015-2020 should be encouraged.
  • The plan is what will guide the 2017 General Election and the input of political parties cannot simply be wished away.

The decision by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to develop the Strategic Plan 2015-2020 should be encouraged, given the problems that were experienced at the 2013 elections.

But some political parties and the civil society suggest the commission seems to have spurned an opportunity to build consensus and recoup the public confidence it lost at the last elections.

The plan is what will guide the 2017 General Election and the input of political parties, who are a key stakeholder, cannot simply be wished away.

The views of ordinary Kenyans and the civil society must also be taken into account. Antagonising them at this time is akin to creating unnecessary political tension.

Rather than uniting an already divided country along party and ethnic lines, the questions that the parties and civil society groups are raising will only help to widen the divisions ahead of the 2017 elections.

It would be in the interest of all the political players that IEBC rethinks its decision to launch the strategic plan and take time to consolidate support by bringing all the players to the negotiating table so as to come up with a document that will be owned by all.