International Centre for Policy and Conflict Executive Director Ndung’u Wainaina. Photo/FILE
By DAVE OPIYO dopiyo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, December 28 2012 at 15:04
Posted Friday, December 28 2012 at 15:04
A lobby group wants the electoral commission to thoroughly vet all aspirants seeking elective seats in next year’s General Election.
The International Centre for Policy and Conflict on Friday said that candidates who have met the integrity threshold as required by the constitution should be allowed to compete in the March 4 polls and hold public office.
At a news conference, Executive Director Ndung’u Wainaina asked the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to set up a central mechanism with other crucial state agencies to undertake the vetting exercise.
The team, he proposes, should include the police, the Criminal Investigation Service, the National Investigation Service, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution and the Commission on Administrative Justice.
“We certainly recognise that this is an onerous task considering the now overcrowded electoral timetable. As a constitutional body, the IEBC will be holding a mock elections if it fails to undertake proper inquiry and background check of all candidates at all levels of governance,” he said.
“Any conduct of democratic elections cannot be fulfilled unless the candidates presented to the people have met the requisite threshold on personal integrity,” he went on.
Added Mr Wainaina; “They must therefore have neither criminal background nor history of violence and involved in corruption and economic crimes, abuse of office human rights violations, tax evasion, organised crime and others.”
The IEBC, he said, must not fail in this duty.
He said under the Constitution, no Kenyan enjoys immunity from inquiry into their backgrounds.
“Article 145 (1) (b) of the Constitution limits immunity even for the president unlike in the former Constitution and therefore, it would be a total dereliction of public duty were the IEBC to ignore its rightful duty to vet candidates at all levels.”
He hailed the recent move by the Commission on Administrative Justice to declare Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu his Makadara counterpart Gidion Mbuvi and 34 other Kenyans unfit to hold any public office due to integrity issues.
The list further includes 22 commissioners of the now defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) who were accused of mismanaging the 2007 General Election, leading to the deaths of more than 1,000 people with at least 350,000 others displaced.
The office of the ombudsman consequently wants the officials wants barred from taking part in next year’s General Election.
“This action is long overdue in the context of historic struggle to sanitise and or cleanse the country’s politics and governance.”
“Voters should only be electing candidates who have been cleared having met personal integrity, competence and suitability to hold office. Any other procedure will be deemed fatally and incurably defective and to be a violation of the spirit and letter of the constitution,” added Mr Wainaina.
Mr Wainaina said even though everyone has a right to run for elective office, the right was not absolute.
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