A leaked report on a planned Sh30 million trip proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back in the long simmering feud between electoral agency commissioners and its secretariat, prompting interdiction of four senior staff members and suspension of one.
At the centre of the apparent fallout is a planned benchmarking trip on boundaries demarcation that would have seen the three Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) members — Wafula Chebukati (chairman), Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu — embark on a bench-marking tour of the US, Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and Nigeria.
In a move that further highlights the fact that commissioners and the secretariat have been working at cross purposes in a frosty environment, 21 other officials have been issued with warning letters for alleged professional misconduct that is linked to various anomalies at the poll agency.
Those interdicted include the manager in charge of boundaries, Carolyne Manyange, a cartographer in the boundaries department, Paul Yego and a messenger, Johannes Emali.
An official, only identified as Malonza, an election coordinator, has also been suspended over the same issue.
Sources at IEBC, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, disclosed that the three were interdicted on Friday last week following the leakage of a crucial report on the commissioners’ planned trip overseas on boundary delimitation.
According to insiders, Chebukati called for an urgent meeting last Friday where he demanded that all the officers concerned with the delimitation issue provide names of individuals whom they suspect leaked the report.
It is understood that a furious Chebukati threatened to sack all the members of the secretariat should they fail to provide the names of the suspected offenders.
“Chebukati was furious and wanted to know how such a report could be leaked even before it was finalised,” said the source.
Reacting to the latest development at the electoral body, two MPs appeared to take different positions.
Peter Kaluma, who is a member of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, sided with the commissioners, but with a rider that as “long as the law was followed.”
“Nobody should be allowed to micromanage IEBC and members of the secretariat should know that the commissioners are their employers. So as long as the law was followed, the Chebukati-led team was right to take the decision,” he said.
But Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), appeared to differ insisting that the commission has outlived its usefulness.
“As PAC, we maintain that the commissioners failed to take charge of the entire electoral process and made taxpayers to lose billions of shillings through direct procurement of most election materials. So their continued stay in office is a waste of taxpayers’ money. Any action they are doing is simply gobbling our money,” he said.
Those given warning letters were accused of various misdeeds in the procurement of equipment used in the last General Election which the three commissioners now claim were sub-standard and led to irregularities in some areas.
Yesterday, neither Chebukati nor IEBC corporate communications manager Tabitha Mutemi answered our phone calls nor responded to text messages.
The commissioners have since cancelled the trips that were estimated to cost the taxpayers Sh30 million.
However, it was the visit to South African that raised eyebrows as the country does not have constituencies as the country’s Parliament consists of 490 seats, with 400 forming the Lower House or National Assembly pegged on party strength.
The Upper House or the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) has 10 members from each province. Members to the NCOP are provincial delegates nominated by each provincial legislature.
According to insiders, Chebukati, Guliye and Molu resolved to have the three individuals sent packing as they directly deal with the issue of boundaries delimitation.
Three commissioners instead of seven currently constitute the IEBC after Roselyn Akombe fled the country while three others controversially resigned in a huff namely vice-chair Connie Maina, Margaret Mwachanya and Paul Kurgat.
Chebukati’s action comes at a time when the commission is preparing to conduct a review of boundaries in line with the Constitution once the national population and housing census is concluded.
It was understood that the decision to issue the letters follows the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report that indicted the officials on their roles in the procurement of Sh4 billion Kenya Integrated Election Management Systems (Kiems) kits without the contractors providing performance guarantees contrary to the provisions of section 142 (1) of the Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015.
According to the sources, the 21 had been invited by the committee to explain their role in the saga as well as prove why action should not be taken against them.
Those indicted by the House committee included acting chief executive officer Marjan Hussein whom the committee accused of misleading the CEO into endorsing contracts without following the law.