For the first time, the electoral chiefs have 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.
The IEBC team has made various proposals to the Parliament. Part of the 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.
On Thursday, 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.
Chebukati 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.
“Kenyans in the new Constitution had in mind that IEBC should be independent. That is our position. We should retain a lean, small commission rather than a larger one by parties.”
When lawyer Paul Mwangi, who is also part of the Taskforce, asked Chebukati his opinion on the ongoing Huduma Namba’s National Integrated Identify Management System pilot programme, the IEBC chairman said it was long overdue for the Kenyan government to have such critical data of her citizens. The IEBC will benefit from the data, he said.
“If successfully done, we will be running our data against them. IEBC will have a near perfect data,” he said.
NIIMS, which will capture data for persons from the age of six, will create and manage a central master population register.