A fierce two-pronged political war will play out in Parliament on Thursday as President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga's troops tussle over two key reforms at the heart of IEBC.
The new battlefront is centred on a push by Ruto's MPs to alter the composition of the IEBC recruitment panel and the bid to kick out four commissioners who declined to endorse the August 9 presidential results.
Separate reports on the two emotive issues will be tabled in Parliament on Thursday for debate before MPs proceed on the December recess.
The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of the National Assembly is set to table a report on a proposal to alter the panel that hires IEBC commissioners that critics say "favour the Executive".
JLAC is also expected to table the report on the petitions seeking the removal of IEBC commissioners Juliana Cherera (vice chairperson), Francis Wanderi, Justus Nyang'aya and Irene Masit.
Azimio and Kenya Kwanza troops have already set the tone for what is promising to be a fierce debate.
On Tuesday, Raila, together with Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, rallied Members of Parliament affiliated to their parties to oppose the changes.
The Azimio team termed the changes "a determination by the Ruto administration to create an electoral body in Ruto’s own image and after his liking."
The opposition further argued that the “push to reorganise the IEBC is camouflaged as a trial of the four IEBC commissioners.”
“Our stand remains that the focus on the four commissioners is not about the 2022 elections. It is about 2027 elections whose rigging the Ruto regime is putting in place in 2022,” Raila’s team said on Tuesday.
The move to tamper with the selection panel as currently constituted is thus anticipated to spark a fierce battle in the August House.
Asked what is likely to play out during the debate on the floor of the House, Minority leader Opiyo Wandayi on Wednesday said he wouldn’t want to preempt the events of the day.
Wandayi, who read the Azimio statement at the party’s group meeting at the Kalonzo Musyoka Command Centre, said their stance remains.
“What I know is that our party’s position hasn’t changed,” the Ugunja lawmaker told the Star.
Sources in Parliament intimated to the Star that JLAC has agreed with the proposed changes sponsored by Majority leader Kimani Ichung'wah.
The majority side holds that their counterparts in Azimio have no numbers to defeat the proposed amendments should a vote ensue.
Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa, a Kenya Kwanza insider, said they have been rallied to back the changes and ignore the opposition’s concerns.
The thinking in Ruto’s camp is that the changes are for the good and would make the selection panel more than a political parties' affair.
“We trust that the committee under the able chairmanship of Gitonga Murugara will come up with a good recommendation. We will approve the committee’s recommendation even without removing a comma,” Barasa said.
“The Azimio team has no capacity, no gravitas, no numbers, and no intelligence to defeat this bill. We are already persuading more than half of their members to agree with the committee’s recommendations,” the MP added.
Barasa said the same position would apply to the ouster of the four commissioners.
"We will approve what the committee would say. We are sure of getting some Azimio members to our side on this one too,” he said.
His sentiments came in the wake of President Ruto rubbishing Azimio’s opposition to the bid to remove the four commissioners, saying their strategy – street demonstrations - was wrong.
The IEBC Bill, if approved, has serious ramifications on the composition of the election agency, with two warring sides saying they are tied to the 2027 elections.
With the second reading, the majority party could be just a step away from altering the composition of the team that will recruit a new IEBC chairman and two commissioners.
The new commissioners will replace IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati and commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye who are set to retire in January.
The argument by the opposition is that legislating for five of the seven positions of nominees of state agencies and public organs – with only two reserved for non-state bodies - offends the Constitution.
A voter identified as Eliud Matindi, in a memorandum to JLAC, said the changes stand to worsen the concerns on the composition of the team as currently constituted.
“The proposal to reserve five of the seven available slots to state agencies and public body nominees likewise breaches the Constitution,” he said.
Raila’s troops are also opposed to the plan by the Kenya Kwanza side to change the law to reduce political parties’ slots to two from the present four.
Presently, two men and women – from the majority and minority party - are to be nominated by the Parliamentary Service Commission.
The Law Society of Kenya is to nominate a representative and two persons are to be nominated by the Interreligious Council of Kenya.
The proposed law, however, seeks to have the political parties relinquish its two seats to the Public Service Commission and the Political Parties Liaison Committee.
Raila and his troops are opposed to the removal of the four commissioners who differed with IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati on his declaration that Ruto won the August election.
The commissioners snubbed the hearings citing a lack of partiality, further arguing that the process "has predetermined outcomes".
Regardless, the committee chaired by Tharaka MP Gitonga Murugara retreated to write the report despite the objections raised by the lawyers for the four, who have since questioned the House team’s jurisdiction on the matter.