By LUCAS BARASA lbarassa@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, March 18 2012 at 13:09
Posted Sunday, March 18 2012 at 13:09
The civil society wants President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to dissolve the coalition government on October 19 for the General Election to be held in December this year.
Through the National Civil Society Congress (NCSC), they lashed at Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission for ignoring an ongoing suit in court on the matter and setting March 4 as date of next elections.
Addressing journalists in Nairobi, the groups called for the resignation of IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan for allegedly failing to exercise his mandate as per the constitution and seeming to side with one side of political divide.
“If the chair is unable to exercise his mandate, to follow the spirit and letter of the constitution, to read the public mood and respect other institutions of government, he should step aside. There are many other competent Kenyans who can replace him,” Mr Tim Mwaura of the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness, said.
The civil society leaders included NCSC President Morris Odhiambo, Organisation for National Empowerment director Benji Ndolo, Mr Joel Makori of National Students Caucus, Grace Ngugi (Young Women Leaders Caucus) and John Abok of League of Young Voters.
They said a majority of Kenyans preferred a December election and that it is wrong for IEBC to take advantage of grey areas in law to set a March date instead of waiting for outcome of a case in Court of Appeal slated to be heard on Thursday.
“What we have from the IEBC is a tentative date for elections, not a final date. As IEBC itself noted yesterday, there are court processes that may still impact on this issues. IEBC must take time to reflect on impact of its decision and perception on independence of the institution,” Mr Odhiambo said.
The civil society questioned whether the IEBC decision was independent of political influence “as the constitutional principle is that elections must be held every fifth year, 2013 takes us to sixth year.”
They told the IEBC to leave the court process to be completed and that if the principals agree to dissolved the coalition, Parliament would also is be affected as it one arm of government.
The civil society leaders also took issue with National Cohesion and Integration Commission chairman Mzalendo Kibunjia and Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere for failing to act on leaders who engage in hate speech.
They further opposed a move by MPs to have the Constituency Development Fund retained after the next election saying issues of development should be left to county governments.
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