PHOTO | FILE Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Isaack Hassan (left) with IEBC chief executive officer James Oswago during a past press conference.
By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, February 10 2012 at 22:30
Posted Friday, February 10 2012 at 22:30
IN SUMMARY
- Planning for Kenya’s biggest election gets into high gear as the nation awaits December decision by Kibaki and Raila
The journey to the General Election starts on March 15 after the electoral commission compiles the final report on the 80 new constituencies.
On Friday, the parliamentary committee on Justice and Legal Affairs started scrutinising the interim report on the new boundaries for constituencies and county assembly wards, a day after receiving it from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Thursday. (READ: Submissions on ward and constituency boundary review closed)
The committee is expected to review the report by February 23 and table it before Parliament for debate.
According to the IEBC Act, Parliament will within seven days discuss the report and, where necessary, recommend changes which will then be forwarded to the electoral body to be incorporated in the final report. The commission will have 14 days to prepare the final report and have it gazetted.
The IEBC confirmed on Friday that it had already prepared a detailed roadmap to a credible General Election in December this year. (READ: IEBC handed cash boost for polls)
Central to the plans is a massive voter education campaign to ensure that the violence witnessed after the 2007 election is not repeated.
Post-election violence
It also entails the use of information technology to ensure the election results are delivered promptly to eliminate the delays that characterised the announcement of the 2007 presidential results, culminating in the post-election violence.
IEBC chief executive James Oswago revealed that the Commission was heading for a retreat next week to fine-tune the election plans.
“We have already prepared an action plan for 2012 and 2017 elections. We are going to Naivasha on Monday next week to fine-tune and synchronise the plans. We expect to be through by Friday,” Mr Oswago said.
It would appear that it is against this backdrop that the commission has formally written to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga asking them to dissolve the 10th parliament by October to pave way for the election in December.
Making the disclosure after handing over the report of the proposed new boundaries to the parliamentary committee on Justice and Legal Affairs on Thursday, IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan said it was necessary for the two principals to declare the election date early so that preparations for the polls could start in earnest.
“This is unnecessary suspense. It is creating anxiety in the country. They need to announce when they will dissolve the coalition, so that the aspirants like civil servants can begin to plan to resign. The ball is in their court,” said Mr Hassan.
Political parties too, the electoral commission boss said, would have to carry out their nominations for candidates in the six-tier elections where Kenyans will elect a president, senators, governors, MPs, women representatives, one from each county, and County Assembly representatives for the county wards.
The chairman promised that a letter containing the commission’s proposal on the election date would be at the desks of the President and Prime Minister by Friday.
Mr Oswago supported the IEBC chairman’s concerns, saying the commission needed to know the election date to enable it to plan appropriately. (READ: IEBC pushes for December polls)
“The Commission does not have the luxury of waiting. The commission cannot operate in an environment of uncertainty. We must operate in an environment of certainty to enable us plan ahead,” he said.
This week, the commission, in partnership with Electoral Reforms International Services (Eris) conducted a training workshop for Constituency Election Coordinators (CEC) who will in turn train other election coordinators in different regions on matters of dialogue, mediation and facilitation.
A similar workshop was held late last year and aimed at enhancing the skills of regional and constituency election coordinators to prevent election-related conflicts.
The workshop also aimed at assisting regional and constituency election coordinators in planning and coordinating efforts towards preventing election-related conflicts.
Mr Oswago said the commission would start mapping out registration centres and polling stations after the boundaries are gazetted.
“We are doing boundary delimitation. From there, we will embark on the mapping of registration centres and polling stations across the 47 countries of Kenya. We will then go to voter registration exercise to ensure that all eligible voters are registered in time for the elections,” he added.
Once the voter registration is completed, the commission will start preparations for voter education to sensitise against violence.
The commission will at the same time undertake the procurement of ICT equipment in readiness for the electronic transmission of results during the elections.“We will also have to undertake a massive procurement of material for voter education after which we will embark on massive voter education campaign. This time round, we are planning both a pre-election and a post-election voter education campaign because the violence occurred after the last general election,’ he stated.
“Then we start preparing for the election itself. This entails scenario building where we conjure various scenarios and plan for each of them. We plan for any eventuality so that we are not caught napping. The planning will also include the sourcing and distribution of election material,” he explained.
Without giving the exact timelines when the specific aspects of the roadmap would be achieved, Mr Oswago assured that the commission would be ready for the general election well in advance.
“All in all, we are ahead in terms of planning. The only area where we may need some external support is on the enforcement of laws such as the Political Parties Act and the Elections Act to instil discipline in political parties,” he said.
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