- IEBC has advertised for four departments currently without substantive heads.
- Interviews to be conducted in two weeks.
Image: COURTESY
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has kicked off the recruitment of a new director of ICT.
The holder of the critical job will oversee deployment of the entire poll technology.
IEBC is also seeking to hire other senior officers, among them director of legal services and director research, boundaries and risk management.
The details emerged just a day after the Wafula Chebukati team shortlisted five individuals for the position of CEO.
The new ICT boss will be in charge of the KIEMS kits, complete with the results transmission system and the servers.
The job holder replaces James Muhati who exited the commission in 2020 and was appointed the chief executive officer of Huduma Kenya.
The ICT guru was in trouble after the 2017 polls when Nasa leaders accused him and ex-CEO Ezra Chiloba of bungling the presidential elections.
He was railed by the opposition for declining to open the election transmission servers even after orders to do so were issued by the Supreme Court.
The Star has established the ICT docket is among the four positions the commission advertised internally and those shortlisted are expected to appear before the interview panel in two weeks.
“It was an internal advert and the shortlist is out. The interviews will happen immediately after those of CEO and the deputy,” a highly placed source at the Commission told the Star.
The adverts were made on December 23, 2021.
Michael Ouma is the current acting head of ICT at the commission.
He is among the people said to have been shortlisted for the demanding job.
Chrispine Owiye is the acting Director legal services while Dr Catherine Kamindo head the research, boundaries and risk management on interim terms.
The Commission is also in the process of getting a substantive Director of voter registration and electoral operations currently held by Rasi Masudi.
The move come at a time when IEBC is at advanced stage of recruiting a substantive CEO to take over from Ezra Chiloba who was fired over alleged gross misconduct in 2018.
On Monday, the Commission shortlisted five person for the top job among them Hussein Marjan, who has been acting since Chiloba’s exit.
Also shortlisted are Nancy Kariuki Wanjiku, Dr Joel Mabonga, Zephaniah Aura Okeyo and Dr George Kamau Michugu.