IEBC has lost moral authority to conduct any elections

By Eliud Owalo

eliudowalo@gmail.com

About five years ago, the predecessor of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries commission (IEBC), the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) was disbanded due to diminished public trust and confidence in its work following  the bungled 2007 presidential polls.  Thus, when the Constitution was promulgated in 2010, Article 88, provided for the establishment of IEBC to restore public confidence in the electoral process.

IEBC was intended to preside over an electoralsystem that guarantees free and fair elections, administered in an impartial, efficient, accurate and accountable manner.

However, IEBC has found itself in the political mess its predecessor plunged into. Public confidence and trust in IEBC leadership and performance has diminished. This is why. First, in its efforts to prepare credible and functional systems including electoral voters register for the 2013 General Election, IEBCfailed to impress in many aspects. It ended up with multiple voters’ registers, which were easily manipulated for fraudulent purposes. The case of MsKethi Kilonzo of Cord, who has been barred by theIEBC Tribunal from contesting on grounds that she was not registered, is instructive in this regard.

Second, in the run-up to the 2013 elections, IEBCspent billions of shillings in procuring Biometric Voter Registration kits and other electronic based election materials, ostensibly to enhance transparency andefficiency in transmission of election results but the kits malfunctioned on the voting day.

Third, in the run-up to the elections, the IEBC working in tandem with the Registrar of Political Parties, displayed worrying partisanship and partiality in settling inter-parties disputes, handling cases of party hoppers and this month, overt partiality was displayed in clearing Prof Philip Kaloki (Jubilee) and Ms Kilonzo (Cord) to contest the Makueni senatorial by-elections, with the latter candidate being blocked on flimsy grounds, which lay within the domain of the IEBC.

Fourth, there is credible evidence that IEBC failed to carry out the last presidential poll in a transparent, impartial and accountable manner, hence, the Supreme Court petition and filingelection petitions in courts. The success of former Kibwezi MP Kalembe Ndile’s election petition is a harsh judgment on the performance of IEBC officials over election supervision.

Fifth, indisputably, IEBC is ridden with lack of leadership, professionalism, integrity and acceptable moral standings among its staff. Finally, the latest developments attesting to the continued incompetence and partisanship of the IEBC have been witnessed in the commission’s preparation and conduct towards the upcoming Makueni Senatorial by-election.

In this case, Safaricom has withdrawn its technical support services to IEBC, stating that the commission is ill-prepared to use such services. Still on the upcoming Makueni Senatorial by-election, a sinister complaint has emerged from Jubilee coalition alleging that the Cord candidate, Ms Kilonzo is not a registered voter hence is ineligible to contest. The IEBC tribunal has upheld the Jubilee coalition’s allegations despite the fact that it is commission that registered and issued Ms Kilonzo with the clearance certificate to contest, and more interestingly the IEBC Chairman has denied knowledge of any missing election materials as insinuated by the IEBC Director of Voters Registration.

These suspicious allegations which had neither been reported to police or brought to the attention ofIEBC, raises a lot of questions on the impartiality and credibility of IEBC as an independent referee in any electoral contest. IEBC must now be disbanded forthwith and appropriate options pursued in relation to future elections.

The writer is a Management Consultant based in Nairobi