Big test for IEBC over litany of poll concerns

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, which has insisted it has an open door policy to address any concerns raised by the candidates or political parties, now faces a reality check.

Already, some of the presidential candidates who were barred by the commission are planning to move to court to challenge IEBC's move to block their candidature as the clock ticks to the polls.

They are, however, expected to make their appeal before IEBC's Dispute and Resolution Tribunal before moving to the High Court if dissatisfied.

The legal battles have the capacity to interfere with the election operations plan that is guiding the commission on key timelines ahead of the elections.

The commission is grappling with confidence issues after it blocked all independents from running for president in the August 9 general election amid concerns of partiality.

The IEBC had gazetted 38 presidential aspirants who wished to contest the presidency as independent candidates but trimmed the number due to stringent vetting measures.

Finally, only eight of them made to the final certification process at the Bomas of Kenya.

They were, however, all turned away for failing to meet the requirements including lacking degrees and falling short of the signature requirement.

However, the drama that marred the last day of IEBC clearance at Bomas, analysts say, was a blot on the IEBC's procedures.

This was exacerbated by the commission's last minute decision to rescind the approval of presidential candidate Walter Mong'are Nyambane.

“Just how would the commission recall a certificate issued to a presidential candidate more than a week later and moments after another presidential aspirant raised some concerns over his clearance,” argued political analyst Alexander Nyamboga.

The university lecturer argued the commission did the recall in panic, exposing its soft underbelly and casting doubt on its integrity.

“This is an issue that would have required a robust response and explanation given that Nyambane was the first one to be cleared by the same commission after presenting his papers,” he said.

Besides Nyambane, Safina presidential candidate Jimi Wanjigi also protested IEBC's move to reject his papers on the basis he did not possess a valid university degree certificate.

He is said to have handed to IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati, the Presidential Returning Officer, his transcripts and a letter of completion from a local university pending graduation later this year.

The same documents are said to have been presented by Nyambane as well, allegedly from the same university.

The other issue that the commission will be seeking to satisfactorily address to eliminate any doubts on the conduct of the presidential election, is the integrity of the voters register.

On Wednesday, the IEBC revealed nearly a million voters in the master register will have to be expunged in the next few days because of irregularities including double registration.

After an audit of the voters register by audit firm KPMG, 246,465 deceased voters were discovered, exposing a high number of irregular voters in the roll.

In previous elections, there have been concerns that thousands of dead voters have risen from their graves and went back after casting their votes.

The audit also exposed 481,711 voters had duplicate records and 226,143 voters were registered with IDs that do not validly belong to them.

The number of registered voters with invalid identification documents (IDs and passports) was 164,269.

Chebukati also announced a delay in the publication of the voters register which was pushed to June 20 from June 9, 2022 as earlier communicated.

This would give room for the clean up of the records to provide Kenyans with a waterproof register ahead of the polls.

The KPMG audit of the voter registry exposed weaknesses in the IEBC processes and internal controls around registration.

The registration of voters ended on May 4, 2022 while verification commenced for a period of 30 days ending June 2, 2022.

KPMG Head of Advisory Gerald Kasimu said the auditing firm provided a number of recommendations to some of the anomalies that must be dealt with before a final register of voters can be gazetted and submitted to the public.

"A number of these recommendations can be addressed fairly quickly but there are others that require some investigation before they can be fully rectified," the official said.

The recommendations, Kasimu added, will also address the issue of voters allegedly being transferred from areas they had registered to areas they did not wish to vote from.

"By the time we issue our final report, we will hopefully confirm to the commission that we are comfortable with the implementation of the recommendations that we have made," he said.

Poll experts have insisted IEBC must fully address the issues around impartiality of the electoral commission, integrity of the voters register and transmission of election results before the polls.

Critically, players and stakeholders must be satisfied with the IEBC process to not only address their concerns but also prevent any possible recurrence in the future.

Presidential candidates have intensified their push for the electoral referee to guarantee freed and fair elections that confirm the will of the Kenyan people at the ballot.

Some of the candidates have alleged manipulation of the polls register through irregular transfers of voters and massive deletion of names from the roll, opening a fresh war-path ahead of the elections.

Although Chebukati has insisted the voters roll is still undergoing internal audit, experts argue the commission should come clear on other concerns raised to bolster public confidence in the electoral process.

“What IEBC doesn't want at this moment are the shadows of doubt,” said policy and governance expert Javas Bigambo.

Bigambo said the IEBC needs to develop a robust engagement framework with all stakeholders with periodic meetings and briefings to “outgrow the issues” that led to the nullification of the 2017 presidential election.

“Beyond the hardware issues of preparation of the election, software issues including curing public perceptions to bolster confidence beyond constitutional, legal and statutory frameworks is what the IEBC needs.” 

Ruto—the United Democratic Alliance presidential candidate—has alleged that about one million registered voters in his strongholds have been removed from the IEBC register.

The anomalies, he alleged were part of an elaborate machination by functionaries to manipulate the August 9 general election.

Speaking when he met the EU ambassadors in Kenya on Thursday last week, Ruto said almost 800,000 names have somehow disappeared from the register “which is in the public domain.”

“It is dangerous, especially when public officials are chest-thumping that the deep state will manipulate the elections.”

The Deputy President even asked the EU to intervene to prevent what he termed as “monkey businesses” to try to manipulate the August poll and overturn the will of the people.

On his part, Raila raised some 10 critical issues he wants the IEBC to address ahead of the polls.

The issues also revolved around the integrity of the voter register, identification of voters and transmission of results during elections, the key pillars of nullification of the 2017 presidential election.

According to Raila, the issues, christened Azimio la Uchaguzi Mwema,  must be addressed to ensure free, fair and credible elections.

He sensationally claimed some counties have experienced unexplained one million increases in their voters in the register.

“There have been reports that a number of voters in some counties have suspiciously grown by one million without rational explanation or correlation to population data,” Raila said.

“Can the commission provide assurance it will thoroughly and transparently investigate the said reports and take corrective measures if the said reports are confirmed?”

Raila also asked the commission to develop a constitutionally compliant protocol for the results transmission all the way from the polling station to the national tallying centre in Nairobi.

He also faulted the IEBC’s intention to outlaw hard copies of the voters register at the polling station, questioning how the poll agency would handle the situation in case of technology failure.

On the 2022 ballot boxes, Raila sought assurance of the commission that the Greek company Inform Lykos (Hellas) SA, which was behind last minute postponement of 2019 Nigeria’s elections, will not mess the scheduled August polls.

Another amendment the ODM boss insisted will undermine credibility of polls is the proposal by the commission to give POs powers to open a sealed ballot box to remove wrongly put materials.

 

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