Posted Saturday, August 6 2011 at 22:00
In Summary
- The elections body is a divided house. Commissioners are at war with the secretariat staff and among themselves. Nor are field officers left out. Who is fighting whom and why?
- With plum positions at yet-to-be-formed electoral team at stake, concern over who takes the role emerges as dossier raises fears that there could be a repeat of violence after next year’s elections
A relentless boardroom battle is boiling over at the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC).
The battle is mainly between the commissioners and the secretariat, but also among the commissioners as the allure of plum positions at the yet-to-be-formed Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) beckons.
Last week’s dossier that accused IIEC chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan, and commissioners Davis Chirchir, Winnie Guchu and Ken Nyaundi of improperly influencing the recruitment of field staff only served to blow the battles into the public arena.
The timing of the publication of the dossier appears to have been choreographed to fall in with the imminent vetting of members of the team that will run next year’s elections and create 80 new constituencies; a matter that has often raised political temperatures and caused sharp divisions among MPs.
The anonymous dossier raises fears that there could be a repeat of the 2007/08 events after next year’s General Election.
It is not lost on Kenyans that the IEBC will inherit the IIEC secretariat. With allegations of selfish interests in the hiring process of field staff being bandied around, there is reason to worry about the impartiality of the elections officials who will oversee the next General Election.
The dossier claims that Regional Elections Coordinator (REC) for Garissa Saadi Noor is related to Mr Hassan, while Mr Japheth Yegon (South Rift) is alleged to have links with Mr Chirchir, so is Ms Sarah Ogaro (South Nyanza) allegedly related to commissioner Nyaundi.
The IIEC denies all of these claims.
“The Regional Election Coordinators from these regions or any other are not related in any way with the commissioners. All jobs within the commission were advertised and competitive recruitment was done. The recruitment panellists consisted of commissioners and senior IIEC staff seconded from the government. It was done above board,” IIEC’s communications manager Tabitha Mutemi said.
Mr Hassan told the Sunday Nation that he did not have any relative working for the commission as alleged by the anonymous dossier which he said was only meant to poison the minds of those who will interview the members of new IEBC.
“It’s completely false. I can assure you that I have got no relative in the commission. We have been working for the last 18 months and no one has raised any issues. It’s all about the upcoming vetting,” said the chairman.
He said that the authors of the anonymous dossier were bent on maligning the names of commissioners they did not wish to see remain in office.
He said that his commission was carrying out internal investigations to identify the source of the dossier but that they had not been distracted from their work.
“The secretariat and the commission are working together. We are investigating this but this does not stop us from working. We are preparing for Kamukunji and we are doing our own internal probe about the origin of this,” he said.
The Constituency Election Coordinators (CECs) play major roles in any election. For example, they are the registered returning officers in elections and registration officers during voter registration.
The declaration of the outcome of any election they make is final, and can only be challenged before a court of law, hence the sensitivity of their recruitment. The Regional Election Coordinators, on the other hand, supervise several constituencies.
Mr Hassan said that plans have been completed to reshuffle election coordinators to ensure that they did not supervise elections in their home constituencies or regions in 2012.
For the constituency coordinators, they will write down all the constituency names, place them in a box and everyone will be asked to pick a ballot ahead of the elections.
The regional coordinators will be required to do the same. Every of the coordinators will be posted to the place according to the lots unless they pick a lot that names their home constituency or home region, Mr Hassan said at the Thursday news conference.
Faced with a credibility test after the leakage of the damaging dossier to the media last week, IIEC rushed to assure Kenyans that the next General Election will be free and fair.
Mr Hassan blames the publication of the document on “some forces” who would like to influence who manages the 2012 elections.
“The timing of these malicious allegations is suspect. We are in a transition and it is highly possible that some forces would like to influence who manages the 2012 elections. There is evidence that they are using some of our staff to champion their selfish interests,” said the IIEC boss.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo concurs with Mr Hassan, noting that the dossier had all the markings of an active political machine within IIEC.
“I have no doubt in my mind that the situation we are in has been caused by outside forces who are intent on controlling the electoral management body though improper, unconstitutional and unfair methods,” Mr Kilonzo told the Sunday Nation.
“As someone without any political baggage, I can tell you that there are those (political forces) who are targeting the commissioners while others are going for the secretariat. It could also be a long political strategy to discredit those who are viewed to support opponents,” the Justice minister added.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga suspended his adviser on coalition affairs Miguna Miguna last Thursday for “gross misconduct”.
Mr Miguna, a regular commentator in the Star, has recently written stinging criticisms of the IIEC in his column, particularly its chairman Hassan, whom he accused of unfairly taking all the credit for the commission’s good work.
On July 21, he published an article titled IIEC Chair Isaack does not deserve all the plaundits. The abrasive Miguna, in a statement after his suspension, said: “In the articles I have authored, I made factual and logical arguments based on publicly available information. No one has refuted any of the factual assertions and issues in that article.
“The article was not about Issack as such. It addressed issues of good governance, discrimination, corruption and nepotism at the IIEC. Those are important issues that cannot be trivialised. I stand by my story.”
Mr Kilonzo, who is the line minister, says the allegations came as a surprise since no one had made them to him or the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC). He has dismissed all the allegations as baseless.
“If there was any wrong committed, publishing it in the manner it was done does not help the situation,” he said.
The minister is challenging any person with credible information to forward the same to him, the KACC or the Director of Public Prosecutions office.
Early this year, commissioners Guchu and Chirchir developed a roadmap that, if implemented, would have seen the next General Election held in December 2012.
The result was an uproar, with the chief electoral officer James Oswago and other commissioners accusing the two of going behind their backs.
But the two commissioners, who shared the document with the Justice ministry, said they were only making proposals as had been requested by the ministry.
Once that row had died down, disagreements over whether the IEBC will inherit the entire IIEC secretariat emerged.
The secretariat, once again, intent on defending their positions, disagreed with the commissioners. They triumphed when the IEBC Act stated that they would move into the new body.
But the commissioners are not without any blemish. Commissioners and senior secretariat staff stand accused of protecting field staff who are found either to have embezzled funds or engaged in other misconduct.
Sources say there are internal audits pointing to some of the alleged misdeeds and it is expected that once KACC investigates, they will be able to establish the veracity of the allegations.
Allegations have also been made to the effect that some commissioners may have interfered with the by-elections in Juja and Kirinyaga Central. In the Juja case, aspirants teamed up to complain that they suspected an insider was favouring former MP George Thuo.
IIEC denies any wrongdoing. “Totally false,” Mr Hassan said in response to the accusations.
Ken Wafula, the chairman of the National Council of NGOs has no kind words for the two main political parties – PNU and ODM.
“The National Council of NGOs urges the two main political parties in the country to hold their horses. This country is larger than the two political parties,” said Mr Wafula.
Similarly, Mr Kilonzo is pleading with politicians to keep off the affairs of IIEC.
“There is no value to unduly influence the electoral body. It is a sign of someone who is not aware of the new Constitution. The price is too heavy to pay,” said Mr Kilonzo.
In the meantime, KACC confirmed that they have received a request from the electoral commission to investigate the allegations raised in the dossier.
The commission’s spokesman, Mr Nicholas Simani, said a team has been set up to begin investigations.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment