The Building Bridges Initiative Taskforce has proposed radical changes that will transform the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ahead of the next general elections in 2022.
The changes are meant to enhance the capacity of IEBC in order to deliver free and fair elections.
The report proposes to remove all the current commissioners from the office and establish a new team ahead of the 2022 polls.
The IEBC is currently operating with only the Chairperson and two other commissioners after four others resigned.
Just days before the October 26, 2017 repeat election, commissioner Roselyn Akombe resigned and fled the country saying she had received death threats.
The other two are Paul Kurgat and Margaret Mwachanya.
In April last year, three others led by vice chair Consolata Nkatha resigned saying the chairman Wafula Chebukati had failed in offering IEBC leadership.
The report presented to President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday has proposed a three-year contract term to the commissioners which can be renewed once.
This the task force said this is meant to ensure every new Commission determine its own direction rather than become a captive of the IEBC Secretariat.
The other proposal is to hire all the Returning Officers through a system similar to that of hiring Commissioners.
The report has also proposes all the Returning officers be contracted on a part-time basis and should not oversee more than one general election.
It also wants the qualifications for the Chairmanship of IEBC to made open so that it is not a preserve for lawyers.
It goes on further to add that the IEBC chairperson should be anyone with at least 15 years experience at a senior management level.
The report proposes the chairperson to be accorded more powers by also doubling up as the Chief Executive Officer of the Commission.
This is meant to shield his/her work from being undermined by the Secretary who is the CEO in the current system.
Current chairman Wafula Chebukati and former CEO Ezra Chiloba were involved in a bitter power struggle that exposed the deep cracks at the electoral commission.
Chiloba was eventually sacked in September last year after being indicted by the commission’s internal audit report which revealed taxpayers could have lost millions in flawed procurement of goods and services for the 2017 General Election.
