Reconstitution of IEBC on course as selection panel goes for gazettement

The process of recruiting commissioners for the incapacitated Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is moving along steadily after a selection panel was formed to hire them.

The Public Service Commission and the Kenya Law Society (LSK) are scheduled to send their representatives' names to the panel on Monday.

The National Assembly Speaker, Moses Wetangula, stated that the IEBC selection panel members will be gazetted by Tuesday, kicking off the advertisement process for the vacant slots.

Aside from the politically-led National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) Report, which saw President William Ruto and Raila Odinga of the Azimio La Umoja Coalition agree on its reconstitution, Generation Z protesters have piled pressure on the body to be reconstituted in preparation for elections.

Bodies nominating the nine members of the panel that will recruit the next crop of IEBC commissioners have until Monday 29, July, to do so.

Speaker Moses Wetang'ula, as chairperson of the Parliamentary Service Commission, has until the close of business Monday to receive the names. The Speaker is thereafter expected to submit the names to President William Ruto to appoint the selection panel.

The IEBC (Amendment) Act, of 2023, set a 14-day window for the respective nominating bodies, a deadline that lapses today.

According to the law, the Parliamentary Service Commission has two slots in the panel, three for political parties under the liaison umbrella PPLC, two for interreligious council, and one each for ICPAK and the Law Society of Kenya.

The team is taking shape with most of the agencies having forwarded their nominees to the PSC for onward transmission to the President.

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants-Kenya nominated Tanui Andrew Kipkoech as its representative in the panel.

Political Parties Liaison Committee (PPLC) on its part nominated Evans Misati – the current chair of the committee. He is to represent non-parliamentary parties.

Others in the PPLC team are Nicodemus Bore to represent the majority party. He is an executive director at President Ruto's United Democratic Alliance party.

PPLC also nominated Augustus Muli to represent the minority side. He is the leader of the National Liberal Party.

The Interreligious Council, for its part, has nominated Nelson Makanda of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya and Fatma Saman of the National Muslim Leaders Forum.

Eyes are on who the Raila and Ruto parties have picked to represent their sides. The major political coalitions are to nominate two persons through the PSC. PSC conducted the interviews to pick its nominees on Friday.

The nominees are to represent the majority party or coalition of parties and the minority party or coalition of parties.

After their appointment, the panel would have 90 days to forward the names of the nominees to the IEBC, after which it would stand dissolved.

Misati, Saman, and Makanda were in the selection panel whose work was stopped to pave the way for the dialogue between President Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga's side.

Other members were Vice Chairperson Charity Kisotu and members Bethuel Sugut, Euralia Atieno, and Benson Ngugi. Their duties were stopped when they were just about to begin short-listing candidates for chairman and members of IEBC. At least 25 applied for chairperson and 925 for commissioner jobs.

His comeback follows a provision of the new law which extended a lease of life for those who were in the initial team.

"The selection panel existing immediately before the commencement of this Act shall stand dissolved but the members of that panel may be nominated to serve in any subsequent panel," the law reads.

Notes accompanying Tanui's nomination state that he is a member of the institute's public policy and governance committee.

He is also the current chairman of the audit committee of the Teachers Service Commission and currently serves as deputy director of Corporate Affairs at a government agency.

President Ruto, after receiving the names from PSC, has seven days to appoint the selection panel to appoint the chair and members.

IEBC presently has no commissioner after chairman Wafula Chebukati and commissioners, Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye, retired in January last year.

The other four commissioners - Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Justus Nyang'aya and Irene Masit - were kicked out for rejecting Ruto's election as President.

The bill sets the quorum of IEBC commissioners at five and bars any members from taking up the role of chairperson.

It also removes the provision in the current law that the vice chairperson can act in the absence of the chairperson. The method used in appointments to the commission has also been expanded to incorporate expertise in information technology and accounting.