Willy Mutunga reveals secret towards fostering free, fair and credible elections

Over a long period of time, IEBC has been faced by the challenge of delivering free, fair and credible elections. Efforts to curb the challenge have been advocated for by a section of politicians among them ODM leader Raila Odinga, but have they bore any fruits? Well, former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga says political meddling was to blame for bungled elections. He has called on politicians to keep off election management if they want to foster free, fair and credible elections.

“For truly independent electoral commission to emerge, the political class needs to drop its practice of capturing and enslaving the commission- rendering it incapable of discharging its mandate,” he said at the launch of the post-election evaluation report on Tuesday.

IEBC chairman Wefula Chebukati with former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga during the launch of the Post -Election Evaluation Report for the 2017 General and Repeat Presidential Elections at the KICC yesterday /VICTOR IMBOTO

“The political class wrongly sees itself as ‘owning’ every space, initiative, or decision in the country, a false ‘political class as sovereign’ notion that precipitates overreach and disregards the constitutive and operational autonomy of independent institutions such as IEBC, and even the Judiciary,” he said.

Mutunga explained that the creation of independent institutions was meant to cure political class mischief.

He said meddling and bullying by the political class denied institutions the independence to deliver. “And when those institutions fail because of such political infiltration, we turn around and blame them – and disband them. Then the silly cycle begins afresh with another predictable silly result! Our political class must be self-respecting enough to allow independent institutions to work.”

The retired CJ called on Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to be competent, impartial, and fair with high sense of accountability.

He said there was a need to protect the vote both at party primaries and general elections to curb the emerging and rapidly entrenching notion that voters no longer decide who their leaders are.

According to him, leaders are decided either by party barons, manipulated electoral management agency, or by the courts.

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