The term of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission expired on Saturday with no indications that they will be replaced.
Established in 2009, the commission had nine members whose term ended yesterday. Only seven of the nine are eligible for re-appointment for another three year term.
Advertisement for establishing the new Commission are to be made by Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee and the Constitutional Implementation and Oversight Committee.
By yesterday, it was still unclear when this will be done or transition plans put in place as committee chair and the NCIC chairman Mzalendo Kibunjia could not be reached for comment.
The term of the NCIC commissioners was set to expire September 8, 2012 but Parliament amended the National Cohesion and Integration Act, 2008 and gave the current commissioners 12 more months.
The NCIC was formed with the mandate of spearheading cohesion and integration in the country while checking on the issues of hate speech which was identified as one of the triggers of the 2008 post-election violence.
The commission has been chaired by Mzalendo Kibunjia with the other commissioners being Ahmed Yassin, Fatuma Mohamed, Alice Nderitu, Milly Lwanga, Jane Kiano and Hassan Mohamed.
The chairpersons of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the National Commission on Gender and Development; and the Public Complaints Standing Committee (Ombudsman) are ex-officio members.
NCIC has been criticised in the past for failing to tame hate speech in the country as it has been unable to secure convictions for those alleged to have engaged in it.
After the March polls, the commission was criticized for doing little to deal with hate speech during the elections especially on social media sites.
Despite hundreds of cases arising from offensive material been posted on social media and Twitter, NCIC only launched six formal investigations under a law criminalising hate speech.
Last week, a number of independent commissions said their mandate was threatened due to lack of commissioners. During the annual conference of constitutional commission and independent offices in Mombasa, the chairmen of the commissions said operations in some of the bodies risk being crippled.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights is operating with only one commissioner who is its acting chair and whose
whose term is set to expire in January while the the National Gender and Equality Commission is missing two commissioners.
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