Kenyans can directly appoint IEBC when systems fail - Karua

People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua has said that citizens have the right to take charge and appoint electoral commissioners when government institutions collapse or are deliberately weakened, warning that the country cannot afford continued silence as the IEBC remains in limbo.

Karua, speaking during a television interview at Citizen TV, said Kenyans are the ultimate custodians of power and have the ability to directly constitute the electoral commission if the state fails to deliver a transparent and lawful process.

“The people can be able to even appoint an IEBC through direct exercise of power. It has not been done before, but it is possible,” she said.

She maintained that democracy belongs to the people and must be actively defended when public institutions are captured or dismantled.

“Power belongs to the people. Democracy is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. They have the final say,” she added.

Karua pointed to international examples, particularly Bangladesh, where citizens, united by a common cause, removed a sitting president and chose their own leader, even without the formal backing of state institutions.

“The people of Bangladesh had not chased a leader from office before, but they did. They chose Yunus. I don’t know how they communicated, whether it was via the internet, but they did that directly,” she said.

She said Kenyans have already started walking a similar path, especially through the ongoing youth-led protests that have brought major changes, including the forced reshuffling of the Cabinet.

“Even in Kenya, the people have the power to appoint the IEBC. Before June 2024, if someone had suggested that there would be an awakening, youths taking to the streets in a very patriotic way, we would have seen it as impossible,” Karua said.

“Gen Z have since surpassed that. They are organising it even better. If someone had said that a regime would sack a cabinet because the people have demanded, we would have said it’s impossible, but all that happened thanks to the young people saying enough is enough. It is possible.”

Karua also accused President William Ruto of intentionally engineering a crisis at the IEBC to interfere with the 2027 elections. She alleged that the president pushed out commissioners who still had time left in office to create an artificial delay in the recruitment process.

“If Ruto wants us to meet him at the ballot, let him change his ways. He and his illegitimate rogue regime. If not, Kenyans have the power to terminate your contract earlier,” she said.

“Ruto deliberately and illegally pushed out IEBC commissioners whose tenure would still have been valid to delay the process. It is not right that all commissioners go at the same time, and we are left without the IEBC. That is why there was a break in hiring,” she added.

The IEBC has operated without commissioners since 2022, following the resignation of the Cherera Four and the retirement of former Chair Wafula Chebukati alongside commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye.

President Ruto moved to fill the void on June 10, 2025, by naming seven new commissioners led by Chairperson Erastus Ethekon.

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But the swearing-in was halted by the High Court, which is handling multiple petitions challenging the legality of the appointments.

Petitioners claim the process lacked transparency and failed to meet constitutional thresholds on inclusivity, gender parity, and representation of minority groups and persons with disabilities.

The High Court is expected to issue its ruling on July 10, a decision that could either allow the new team to take office or send the recruitment process back to the drawing board.