Six points demands by Kenya Kwanza on IEBC
Kenya Kwanza camp led by Deputy President William Ruto have asked Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to address six issues they will believe will ensure free and fair elections come August.
Ruto’s presidential campaign team led by Turkana governor Josphat Nanok said these are the “irreducible minimums” IEBC must address ahead of the fast-approaching August polls.
United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Secretary-General Veronica Maina buttressed her party’s stand.
The alliance now wants the electoral agency to make public a report by audit firm KPMG on analysis of the voter register while at the same time provide certified copies of the voter register held by IEBC.
They moreover want the voters’ rolls by various electoral units, polling station, ward, constituency and county levels to be made public to restore public confidence with the electoral body.
The demands by the Ruto side come in the backdrop of the alliance objecting to the inclusion of Cabinet Secretaries Fred Matiang’i (Interior) and his counterpart Joe Mucheru (Information and Communication Technology).
According to the Ruto led side the involvement of the two Cabinet secretaries pose as a threat to a democratic and fair August elections.
They demanded an assurance that the executive will not interfere with IEBC’s job given that both Matiang’i and Mucheru are sitting CS’s in the current administration.
Despite the irreducible demands by the Kenya Kwanza bandwagon, they have also asked the Wafula Chebukati to be clear on how polling stations will accommodate the expected agents given the high number of aspirants.
Finally, the coalition wants a blow-by-blow account of the electoral process — voting, tallying and result transmission, particularly in light of the dispute over the number of polling stations with 3G network coverage.
In the run-up to this year’s election, the IEBC also has deep-seated personal grudges from the 2017 debacle to deal with.
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who was challenging President Kenyatta’s victory at the Supreme Court a second time, has not concealed his loathing for the commission’s chairman, Chebukati.
Back in 2017 National Super Alliance (Nasa) listed nine areas of reforms that it wanted to be tackled before it could participate in the repeat presidential election on October, 26, 2017.
IEBC on Monday confirmed that 1,100 polling centres are yet to be connected to the 3G network.
The recent remarks by the chairman could see the polling centres being unable to transmit results.
Chebukati said a report from the Communications Authority indicated that centres without coverage may not be able to transmit results to the national tallying centre.
