• On Thursday, nominated senator Mary Seneta sought to know the commission’s plan of activities ahead of the polls that are barely 15 months away.
• The legislator sought a statement from the commission through the House committee on Justice and Legal affairs.
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Senators now want the IEBC to make known its roadmap of activities ahead of the high-stake 2022 General Elections.
The lawmakers raised concerns that either nothing seems to be happening at the electoral agency or the commission is quiet about what it is doing in preparation for the elections.
On Thursday, nominated senator Mary Seneta sought to know the commission’s plan of activities ahead of the polls that are barely 15 months away.
The legislator sought a statement from the commission through the House committee on Justice and Legal affairs.
“The committee should outline the roadmap of activities, practical strategies, actions and targets to be undertaken in preparations for 2022 General Elections,” she said.
Seneta wants the Wafula Chebukati - led committee to expound on the methods to be used in the demarcation of electoral areas as well as the reorganization of polling stations.
“They should state measures, if any, that has been put in place to ensure that the national voter register is updated to remove the dead voters and include all eligible voters,” Senata said.
While reacting to the statement, Senators Moses Wetangula (Bungoma), Christopher Langat (Bomet) and Mithika Linturi (Meru) stated the activities of the polls body was a matter of concern.
“Up to this time, it is somehow very surprising that the IEBC has not even come out very clearly on the road to 2022,” Langat said.
The senator said from the composition of the commission nothing seems to be moving.
IEBC is currently operating with only three commissioners, including the chairman after four members of the commission resigned in a huff after the 2017 elections.
Soon after the polls, commissioner Roselyn Akombe resigns. Later, on April 16, 2018, Margaret Mwachanya, the IEBC Vice Chair Connie Maina and Paul Kurgat followed suite.
They said they had no faith in the chairman. Abdi Guliye and Boaya Molu are the only commissioners currently at the commission.
“Somehow, we are under cover by the activities of BBI with perception that everything will be handled by BBI. We need to understand the measures if any that have been put in place by IEBC,” he reckoned.
Wetangula said it was important the commission keeps the country up-to-date in terms of its preparation for the elections ‘because elections is not an event but a process.’
He said that IEBC needs to continue making it known to the public how many people are getting registered in the process of continuous registration.
Further, he said the commission needs to tell the country regularly are they updating the register after registration, and the linkage between the issuance of IDs and registration of new voters.
“If you read the Kriegler report, it stated very clearly that election is not about the day people go to cast their ballot.
“It is about the roads maps to elections including but not limited to the issuance of IDs, which must be fair and equitable, registration of voters which must be fair and equitable and above all, the integrity of the voters roll,” he said.
The Bungoma senator said the IBBC should keep the country abreast on what is doing in far as demarcation of electoral boundaries is concerned.