A lobby of 28 political parties wants the President denied powers to appoint the chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
The Centre for Multiparty Democracy argues the President, being a party to an election, risks perpetuating suspicions in the electoral agency.
The lobby told members of the Constitutional Implementation and Oversight Committee that selection of the chair should be left to the commissioners once appointed.
CMD executive director Franklin Mukwanja told the Jeremiah Kioni-led committee that such a choice should be reached by consensus to entrench trust among poll agency officials.
Currently, President Uhuru Kenyatta has the final say on who is appointed chairman of the constitutional commissions.
The Constitution says that the chairperson and each member of a commission, and the holder of an independent office, shall be approved by the National Assembly and appointed by the President.
Mukwanja spoke as the committee took views on how to reconstitute the commission which is currently grappling with the question of whether it can make key decisions.
Core to the changes by the Ndaragwa MP is a proposal for the number of commissioners to be reduced from seven to five.
“All commissioners should have the same qualification for any to be elected as chairman,” Mukwanja said, arguing that there is no clarity on the President’s role in picking the chair.
However, Mbeere South MP Jeff King'ang'i cautioned that the practice has been that the President appoints chairs of state agencies after the nominees are vetted.
“Don’t you think this direction will open the floodgates for other boards to be independent and water down the power of the President as the CEO,” King'ang'i said.
But CMD argues that there cannot be any different result if the past appointments – argued to have failed Kenyans - are anything to go by.
The lobby further wants a review of the qualifications of the chair, saying the insistence that such a person be of the rank of a judge is counterproductive.
“Must the chair be an advocate? Elections are an operational issue. The decisions reached by the agency are done by members hence the chair may just facilitate the same,” Mukwanja said.
They also want the selection panel reduced to a lean team on grounds the current one does not have stakeholders' interests at heart.
“The process we enacted was for purposes of recruiting the team led by current chair Wafula Chebukati. It has proved to be ineffective as it did not cure the mistrust that affected IEBC operations.”
The CMD director added, “The individuals seconded may not have sufficient professional or political knowhow to manage such a sensitive national duty and political process."
They recommended that the panel be comprised of the Parliamentary Service Commission, majority and minority parties, religious organisations, civic actors and professional bodies.
Also floated to the Kioni team is a proposal to separate the roles of the IEBC secretariat to be purely managerial as the commissioners play oversight.
“We are not looking at an IPPG format but a situation where the main actors will be on board. We want parties to talk and agree on issues,” Mukwanja said.
But MPs in the committee cited difficulties in getting the political parties to reach a decision on four nominees to the selection panel as proposed by CMD.
Kioni said the IEBC question should be solved early – two years before the election as proposed by the Kriegler commission - to avert a political or constitutional crisis.
“The thinking of this committee is to avoid a lacuna in the IEBC. We are looking at what the removal of the three commissioners would mean to the country. The import is that in the event of an election of a President tomorrow, how do we move on a country?” Kioni asked.
The lawmakers asked the lobby to give a clear path on how to legislate the composition of the selection panel to avert tension at the polls.
The selection panel currently comprises representatives of the PSC, Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Council of Churches and Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims.
The National Muslim Leaders Forum and the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, Evangelical Alliance of Kenya and the Hindu Council of Kenya also have one slot each. Religious leaders are the majority.
The IEBC currently has a lean team of three commissioners after four resigned under different circumstances. The three are chairman Wafula Chebukati and commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye.
Roselyne Akombe left the agency days to the repeat 2017 presidential election and was followed days later by commissioners Paul Kurgat, Margaret Mwachanya and vice-chairperson Consolata Nkatha.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)
