IIEC steps in between Raila and Ruto

Published on 06/07/2011

By Alex Ndegwa and Evelyn Kwamboka

Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s attempt to replace ODM nominated councillors allied to Eldoret North MP William Ruto has hit a snag.

Interim Independent Electoral Commission recalled a list of 34 ODM nominees, mainly from the North Rift, it had forwarded to Deputy Prime Minister and Local Government minister, Musalia Mudavadi, for appointment.

Chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan advised Mudavadi to ignore IIEC letter dated June 30, that detailed names of civic leaders whose nomination ODM proposes to revoke, and those listed for replacement.

This came as a group led by Ruto and his Dujis counterpart Aden Dualle moved to court to try and stop ODM from dismissing the councillors.

They argued the councillors met the legal requirements to hold the positions, and they have not lost their ‘capacities’ to warrant dismissal.

Lady Justice Jeanne Gacheche certified the case as urgent, and ordered all parties sued to be served with the case papers. She directed the matter to be heard inter-partes on July 12.

Those sued are the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC), Local Government Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Attorney General Amos Wako.

From letters seen by The Standard, it emerged the Registrar of Political Parties discovered some nominees forwarded to replace the nominated civic leaders by ODM were not members of the party.

Acting on the advice of the Registrar, IIEC decided to recall the names and take them back to ODM for correction. "IIEC received a letter from ODM with 50 names that the party wanted degazetted and 50 replacements, but the irregularities were noted after the commission asked for identification of the nominees," said a source at IIEC.

Drumming up support

Nine of 13 civic authorities ODM intends to shake up are in Rift Valley — considered to be Ruto’s power base — heightening speculation the party is cracking down on dissent in the region. Ruto himself has made it clear he is on his way out of ODM and so, too, are several Rift Valley MPs who are drumming up support for UDM.

Hassan informed Mudavadi — who was expected to gazette the new list of nominated councillors — that IIEC would like to recall the previous communication through a formal letter, which he acknowledged was a follow-up to their telephone discussion on Tuesday afternoon.

"This has been necessitated by the fact we have discovered there are errors in the letter. The Registrar of Political Parties has also brought to our attention new information, which affects the list as ODM presented," Hassan wrote.

"Please, therefore, ignore the contents of our letter dated June 30, and consider it recalled. The commission shall communicate to you in due course with the final list," he concludes.

Although the letter does not explain the nature of the ‘errors’ that warranted the recall, it has emerged IIEC could have established that some of the nominees ODM picked were not party members.

Forwarded nominees

The Registrar of Political Parties could have established the anomaly after vetting the nominees long after IIEC had handed over the list to Mudavadi, who is also ODM deputy party leader.

Curiously, ODM did not indicate voters’ card numbers of five of the nominees. The Local Government Act mandates the electoral commission to enforce guidelines for nomination of councillors and requires the names of the nominees are forwarded to the minister through the polls body.

The Act stipulates: "Subject to the Fifth Schedule, any rule made by the Electoral Commission may prescribe, or may provide for the prescription of qualifications to be possessed by persons who are to be nominated, appointed or otherwise selected as councillors for any local authority and may prescribe, or may provide for the prescription of, different qualifications for different classes of such councillors."

In a letter dated June 23 signed by party Secretary General Anyang’ Nyong’o, ODM had requested IIEC to ensure the "following nominated councillors, nominated by our party be revoked and replaced".

ODM listed the affected civic authorities as the Municipal Council of Eldoret, County Councils of Wareng, Kipsigis, Nakuru, Bomet, Bureti, Marakwet, Nandi North and Keiyo.

Others were County Councils of Garissa and Mandera, and Suneka Township.

The ODM letter was also copied to Mudavadi, who as Local Government Minister, is mandated to gazette the changes to take effect.

But the list IIEC forwarded to Mudavadi on June 30 excluded Suneka, but listed the County Council of Gusii and the Municipal Council of Tabaka.

It was, however, not immediately clear whether the party had communicated the changes to IIEC.

Among those whose nomination has been revoked are nine women, but the party proposed women to replace them.

Mudavadi explained it is not unusual for a party to change its nominated councillors, saying he had also received notifications from other parties.

The minister said he would wait until all parties have served him with their lists of any new nominations before effecting the changes.

The developments came a day after The Standard reported ODM had finalised replacement of the nominated civic leaders allied to Ruto, with grassroots leaders deemed loyal to ODM.

It followed up on a related story carried by this paper on Monday of plans by ODM leader to revamp the Pentagon – the party’s highest decision-making organ.

The shake up could see the abolishment of position of deputy party leader, which Ruto holds alongside Mudavadi.