The panel for hiring the next crop of IEBC chiefs has demanded compensation for the period they have served before their work is halted.
The Nelson Makanda-led team was asked to hold their horses to pave the way for President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga's talks.
This came when the panel was just about to shortlist the finalists from among 25 applicants for chairperson and 925 for commissioner.
The talks birthed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which drastically changes the form of the selection panel.
It says the current team will cease to exist when the proposed law is enacted, although the members could be re-nominated.
“The selection panel existing immediately at the commencement date of this Act ceases to exist but a person who served as a member of that selection panel may be nominated to serve as a member of a selection panel appointed under this Act,” the bill reads.
Whereas the professional bodies may retain the nominees in the current team, the political appointees may change a great deal.
Alarmed by the sweeping changes, the panel has approached MPs with a proposal that they be paid for the time served.
“All the members of the selection panel existing immediately at the commencement of this Act shall be compensated fully for the work they performed,” Makanda says in a memorandum to MPs.
He wants the joint National Assembly and Senate Justice committee to recommend their payment from the time the team was sworn in to the time it will be dissolved in line with the exit clause proposed in the bill.
Other members of the panel are vice chairperson Charity Kisotu and members Bethuel Sugut, Evans Misati, Euralia Atieno, Fatuma Saman and Benson Ngugi.
Besides the compensation - whose value is yet to be determined - the lot wants to be retained in the proposed panel.
“The selection panel existing immediately at the commencement of this Act ceases to exist but a person who served as a member of that selection panel may be nominated to serve as appointed under this Act,” Makanda’s memo to MPs reads.
The new bill, however, drastically changes the composition of the selection panel, including the removal of the nominee by the Public Service Commission.
If implemented, it means PSC deputy chairperson Kisotu, who is representing the state recruiter in the team, would lose her slot.
Two persons are to be nominated by the Parliamentary Service Commission, three by the Political Parties Liaison Committee, and one from the Law Society of Kenya and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya.
The Interreligious Council of Kenya has two slots.
The team further wants the work it has done including the applicants' bio data and credentials processed be preserved as a record.
“What happens to the work already done by the panel? In the spirit of prudent use of public finances, public money must not be used imprudently. The panel should have its mandate renewed and additional members added,” the hiring panel said.
Among the concerns raised with the joint committee is the possibility of litigations arising from the incomplete recruitment.
The panel has protested what it terms as arbitrary dissolution. “Why should the panel be punished for a non-defined crime under the law?”
Makanda’s team has been rearing to conclude the recruitment against resistance by the political class.
In early February, a court ordered the panel to resume work immediately but no shortlist has come from the team several weeks later.
