The IEBC wants Parliament to allocate them Sh8 billion to conduct a second review of the ward and constituency boundaries within four years.
Chairman Wafula Chebukati and the commissioners yesterday appeared before the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee chaired by Ndaragua MP Jeremiah Kioni. Chebukati said the review process is scheduled to start this month until August 2021.
The exercise will entail intensive stakeholders consultation and public participation. “The expected budget over the four-year period will be an estimate Sh8 billion,” read their presentation.
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To make the second review a success, the commission proposes to buy GIS equipment and hire boundary experts. The commission also intends to address issues arising from the first review.
The IEBC proposes to use the funds to organise an induction workshop for commissioners and their management, and staff training on delimitation, designing legal framework, procedures, processes and decision-making structures for boundaries demarcation.
“The methodology and process will be through intensive and extensive stakeholders consultations, public participation through public hearings, outreach and mega data analysis of the criteria set out in Article 89,” reads the memorandum.
Article 89 reads: “There shall be 290 constituencies for the purposes of the election of the members of the National Assembly provided for in Article 97 (1) (a)... “the IEBC shall review the names and boundaries of constituencies at intervals of not less than eight years and not more than 12 years but any review shall be completed at least 12 months before a general election of Members of Parliament”.
Last year the National Super Alliance was against the Chebukati team overseeing the review of the electoral boundaries, saying it was skewed towards perceived Jubilee strongholds.
“We want justice. We know the IEBC is planning to add constituencies but it cannot be trusted to deal with electoral boundaries,” Nasa co-principal Musalia Mudavadi said.
"They will give many constituencies to Jubilee and deny NASA zones. The process can no longer be valid,” he added.
After the promulgation of the new constitution, the electoral body created 290 constituencies up from 210. subsequently, 1,450 wards were created.