IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati has opened more battlegrounds with stakeholders in the 2022 general election.
The commission's latest swipe targets politicians in premature political campaigns, following a memo to Chief Justice Martha Koome.
The IEBC is also at loggerheads with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration for hiring an agent at the Foreign Affairs ministry to monitor funds from foreign donors.
The commission is further embroiled in a tussle with political parties, whose liaison team on Friday accused Chebukati of being “a stumbling block to peaceful polls”.
The Chief Justice got a lashing from the commission after she questioned its preparedness in terms of logistics and hiring of returning officers.
Chebukati told off CJ Koome, saying her remarks were “uninformed, unfortunate and unwelcome, coming from the head of a crucial arm of government”.
But it is the latest warning to politicians on the campaign trail that has seemingly reinforced the belief that the commission is on the warpath with major poll stakeholders.
In a terse memo, the IEBC has asked political parties and aspirants to hold their horses until it issues a notice of the general election.
The notice is to be made on March 14, 2022.
“The commission urges all political parties and aspirants to refrain from engaging in early campaigns prior to the general election,” said Chebukati, citing concerns of violence.
The directive has jolted the politicos, who have questioned its timing and why it has not been applied to activities by Deputy President William Ruto-backed United Democratic Alliance.
Raila Odinga’s ODM side believes the statement is meant to rain on the former Prime Minister's parade, following his rising prospects.
Raila’s adviser Paul Mwangi termed the statement “very suspicious”.
He asked why it was released when Raila is about to declare whether he will run for president.
The former PM’s lawyer said IEBC issued the warning “knowing very well that if Raila decides to run for the presidency, he might continue with the gatherings like he has been doing with Azimio la Umoja.”
“What I am seeing is a target on Azimio and the IEBC statement is simply an attempt to clamp down on the increasing success of the Azimio campaigns,” Mwangi said.
He questioned why the commission has not reined in "people who have been running all over the country for the past three years campaigning."
“The people we are talking about have been clearly campaigning and making it clear they are in fact running for the presidency … How come Chebukati has not said a word about it?” Mwangi asked.
He said it was appalling that “it is only when Raila says he wants to make a decision about 2022 that now they remember that they had some power to rein in.”
“They are trying to rain on Raila’s parade by trying to clamp down on the increasing successes of Azimio,” Mwangi said.
Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni, a key figurehead in Raila’s Azimio campaigns, said “it was amazing that IEBC is calling them out this late in the day".
“We have had people campaigning since 2017. IEBC’s failure to act early enough has thrown everyone into the campaign. If they cannot hold down your competitor, why should we hold back?” the MP asked.
Kioni said the mistake was the IEBC's for “the lack of understanding of their role and their total unwillingness to effect the provision of the law.”
“They should have stopped the UDA wing from campaigning. They have been on it for the last four and half years and we have complained,” he said.
“To see others responding the same way, IEBC is late in the day and is actually showing their lack of capacity to manage the elections in this country.”
But IEBC leadership says it did not just wake up and decide to enforce the law on early campaigns.
Acting CEO Hussein Marjan said the commission has been concerned and reiterated its position during the introduction of the four new commissioners on September 10.
At that time, the commission said it had noted with concern the heightened political activities prior to the declaration of the campaign for the general election.
It said the activities were causing unnecessary tension and appealed to the political players and stakeholders to avoid the trend.
Poll experts, though, hold that the commission is not convincing in the measures it seeks to employ in the early campaigns crackdown.
ELOG national coordinator Mule Musau said the IEBC would have condemned the activities if it wanted to, adding they have complained about early campaigns since 2018.
He said the commission was late in the attempt to salvage the situation, having let the same continue during the BBI rallies and other political gatherings.
“If IEBC wanted to do something, they would have condemned them at that time and taken action against the perpetrators. Those are illegal activities,” Musau said.
The ELOG boss added that the law talks about the campaign period being determined.
Musau said there is a thin line between early campaigns and developmental tours – some of which are abused by government functionaries.
“Where people wave banners or attend organised rallies, that should be called out as a campaign. The media is not flagging the issues. We have a clear campaign period.”
He added that the commission has a long way to go in putting its house in order ahead of the 2022 polls citing the delays and stoppages of Kiems and ballot papers procurement.
“They [IEBC] need to pull up their socks. They have timelines and targets,” Musau said.
Many other political players including the church, have called out the commission on its preparedness to manage the decisive 2022 vote.
IEBC suffered a setback after the Procurement Administrative Review Board on Friday nullified its award of the ballot papers tender to Greek firm Lykos.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
