The call for constitution amendments has receive back up from IEBC bosses who are pushing for far-reaching changes to the electoral regime including staggered polls where presidential elections and the rest of the polls are held one year apart.
But in a bold proposal, the Commission Chiefs are demanding financial autonomy to avoid the risk of “State capture” that could compromise elections.
The team led by chairman Wafula Chebukati lamented to the Building Bridges Initiative Taskforce that they are fully dependent on the Treasury for budgetary allocation which compromises the execution of its mandate.
“This exposes the Commission to the risk of State capture thereby compromising elections. To mitigate this risk, the Commission should be allocated adequate resources in line with the electoral cycle, in one tranche at the beginning of the financial year and be given financial autonomy,” Chebukati said.
It’s unclear whether the statement was a subtle admission of government interference in IEBC operations.
IEBC elections would be divided into county-based and national elections in what would require a referendum to change the 2010 Constitution.
The electoral agency team proposes that the election of governors, senator and MCAs shall fall under the county elections and will be held on a single day.
However, the vote for the President, member of the National Assembly and Woman Representative will be under the national elections with the elections pushed to a different date.
“Staggering of elections for national and county elections will enhance efficiency and reduce pressure on the election system and personnel,” IEBC suggests.
This would require an amendment to the law, which sets the date for Kenyans to make their choice in all the six seats as the second Tuesday of August of every fifth year.
The proposal is captured in the IEBC 2017 post-election evaluation report.
Yesterday, the top brass of the Chebukati-led Commission made a strong case for the changes before the Building Bridges Initiative Taskforce.
The BBI team, a product of the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition Leader Raila Odinga could recommend for a constitutional change.
Commissioner Abdi Guliye said the county-based election should precede the national election to cure party migration.
“This is the best model we are proposing. It is a practice in some democracies. The reason why we are saying county election should precede the national one is so that people will not move to the party which the President will have been elected on,” he told the taskforce chaired by Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji.
For the first time, the electoral chiefs admitted that “the winner takes it all” system is the root cause of divisive election in Kenya.
“This system has been inherited from the colonial regime and has existed in Kenya for decades. It’s opined that it’s the root cause of our highly divisive elections…it is our view that a panacea to such divisive elections should be explored,” the IEBC team said, decrying that Kenyan politics is high octane, laced with personalised and ethnicised attacks.
“By the time Kenyans go to the polls, the social fabric that underpins patriotism and brotherhoods is completely broken. What is often left is a highly poisoned and polarised political environment where acceptance of the outcome of a free and fair credible election by the electorate and the political class is a tall order,” they noted.
Part of the IEBC proposal is to enhance the time for the hearing of presidential poll petition from 14 days to 30 days.
IEBC has in the past said that their failure to open the server during the 2017 presidential poll petition that partly contributed to the nullification of Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory was due to time constraints.
The IEBC bosses also said the country need to enact timelines within which pre-election disputes, including procurement-related suits. These must be determined to avoid disputes dragging too close to the polls.
In the last election, IEBC was faced with a barrage of suits, some of which they lost too close to the polls.
The IEBC bosses are also calling for staggered recruitment of commissioners to ensure “continuity of operations, institutional memory and succession management”.
“The current scenario where there are two commissioners and chairperson are presents an opportunity for staggering the appointment of commissioners,” they recommend.
Three of the seven IEBC commissioners resigned, mostly due to the turf wars that have rocked the Commission.
Yesterday, Chebuki vehemently opposed suggestions that political parties should nominate commissioners to the the electoral body.
Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma has drafted a Bill that proposed that Majority and Minority parties should nominate individuals to be IEBC commissioners.
Cheukati is opposed to the proposal, arguing that the number will be too big and there will be disagreements on the number of parties to make nominations.
He also says questions touching on the independence of the commissioners who are nominees of the parties is a matter of concern.