The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission boss Wafula Chebukati will embark on a KSh30 million tour of six countries to “benchmark on boundaries review.”
The IEBC Commissioners commissioners – Chebukati, Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu – are planning to tour South Africa, a country that does not have constituencies, raising questions about the motive of the expensive visits.
The Star has established that the IEBC will visit six countries including the US beginning Monday, March 25.
Documents in our possession indicate that the three commissioners will be in all the six trips together with four staff from the secretariat.
The countries lined up for the benchmarking trips are US, Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and Nigeria.
Yesterday, leaders and electoral experts termed the tours “ill-advised, unnecessary and excessive” and could be a disguise to raid taxpayers’ pocket for hefty allowances.
Most of the people who worked with Andrew Ligale in the last boundary review nine years ago still work for IEBC and their expertise could easily be tapped.
South Africa does not have constituencies and therefore does not undertake boundary delineation.
South Africa’s Parliament consists of 490 seats, with 400 forming the Lower House or National Assembly. The Upper House or the National Council of Provinces, represents has seats (10 members from each province).
Members to the NCOP are provincial delegates nominated by each provincial legislature.
The National Assembly is filled in accordance with the votes each party gets during the General Election.
Yesterday, the national carrier Kenya Airways told the Star it would cost Sh250,580 return to fly a single person to Toronto, Canada , one of the cities the commission plans to tour.