The two have publicly differed on how to fill the vacancies following the retirement and forced resignation of the former bosses.
The sharp difference of opinion is already playing out before the bi-partisan committee constituted by the two leaders.
Former Attorney Genera Amos Wako — a former ODM senator and Azimio lawyer— said at least four of the seven IEBC chiefs should be picked by political parties.
However, the Public Service Commission rubbished the idea.
PSC chairperson Anthony Muchiri insisted IEBC should be protected from politicians to guard its independence.
Already signals point to a looming clash between Raila and Ruto ahead of the recruitment process that has been on slow motion since March when the selection panel announced receiving 920 applications for the vacant positions.
It has always been the position of Raila— a critical cog in the ongoing bipartisan talks - that political parties should be allowed to pick the electoral chiefs.
The former Prime Minister has maintained that without proper reconstitution of the electoral agency, there is no need of having elections in 2027.
Ruto, on the other hand, has been opposed to parties nominating members of the commission.
He favours the current system where candidates apply and are sieved by a panel before being appointed by the President.
The President early this year disregarded opposition protests and appointed the current IEBC selection panel chaired by Nelson Makanda.
Both Ruto's Kenya Kwanza and the Raila-led Azimio la Umoja coalitions are scheduled to make presentations before the National Dialogue Committee on Tuesday.
A top official of the Azimio coalition on Monday told the Star that the opposition will be pushing for the Inter-Party Parliamentary Group system when they make their presentation.
“Under electoral reforms, one of our proposals will be to have parties nominate members of the commission and not a panel as is currently the case,” the top official in one of the Azimio affiliate parties told the Star.
IPPG is where commissioners come directly from the political parties.
The system was applied in 1997 when the ruling Kanu nominated 11 members while the opposition forwarded 10 members to the 21-member commission that delivered the 2002 polls.
Appearing before the National Dialogue Committee at Bomas, Wako – an Odinga ally – was full of praise of the 2002 elections where the IPPG model was fully applied in picking the commission.
“The arrangement delivered 2002 elections whose results were applauded locally and internationally as the most transparent and democratic exercise,” Wako told the Bomas team.
“That commission constituted commissioners nominated by the political parties of that day.”
But in his submission, the former Busia senator rooted for a hybrid system to pick IEBC commissioners mixing IPPG nominees and experts.
He said the current system has not only failed but has ensured each election is contested in court.
In his proposal, three top political parties – based on party strengths - should directly nominate a commissioner each to the electoral body.
The remaining parties through Political Parties Liaison Committee should collectively nominate one person.
Such party nominees, according to Wako, must be men and women of gravitas and should not be paraded for any other approval process but be directly appointed to the commission.
"My proposal is that we have a mixed system of some commissioners appointed by political parties and some commissioners appointed through the current model, also called expert model.
"They should be people of gravitas who cannot be manipulated and their nomination is made at a very high level, under the signature of the party leader," Wako said.
The proposal was however opposed by the Public Service Commission, which instead wants recruitment of the IEBC chiefs insulated against any political interests.
PSC chairperson Muchiri told the committee co-chaired by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka that for IEBC to be independent partisan politics should not be the yardstick in recruitment of commissioners.
“The recruitment of members of IEBC should be shielded from political parties' interests that ultimately cast aspersions on results of elections,” Muchiri said.
“In other words, the members of IEBC should be like Caesar’s wife – beyond reproach.”
On the IEBC servers, the former AG called for a law change to make it mandatory for presidential election servers to be opened immediately the results are declared.
“The law should be enacted to make servers automatically open and accessible to everyone after the presidential results, which are final. This will even help those who want to file petitions,” Wako said
The former AG also supported calls for audit of the 2022 elections and any other presidential elections.
He called for amendments to entrench into law and make it compulsory for all presidential polls to be subjected to audit.
He however was quick to add that the audit should not occasion leadership change but for purposes of improving future elections.
"Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction to determine elections of the President and it's decision is final. To my mind the audit cannot change or reverse a decision of the Supreme Court. It is like a postmortem, which cannot bring back to life a dead body but can tell what caused the death," Wako said.
"I am therefore proposing that the law is amended to make servers automatically open and accessible to anyone as the election is finalised."
The dialogue team, which is finalising stakeholders’ engagement Tuesday, also met members of the IEBC selection panel chaired by Nelson Makanda in a closed door meeting on Monday.
Sources told the Star the panel appraised the team of the recruitment as well as expressed the catch-22 position they have found themselves in anticipation of NADCO deliberations on almost similar agenda.
“They told us their status report and their slow down on the recruitment process given we are also dealing with IEBC matter and they don’t want a situation where they make appointments only to be overturned,” the source said.
Makanda told the committee that they have received 920 applications out of which only 25 expressed interest for the position of the chairman, with the remaining seeking to be members of the commission.
