The recruitment of the new electoral agency chiefs could soon begin after the senators approved a proposed law to pave the way for the exercise.
The Senate approved the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2024, albeit with amendments, on Tuesday.
If the National Assembly agrees with the changes, the Bill will be sent to the President for assent.
The lawmakers amended section six of the Principal Act to make it mandatory for persons appointed as commissioners to have at least 10 years of experience in the field they are qualified.
“[The person appointed] has proven knowledge and at least 10 years of experience in any of the following fields,” the Bill states.
The fields include electoral matters, management, finance, governance, public administration or law.
The legislators approved the Bill during a special sitting on Tuesday.
There is a need to have highly qualified commissioners who are also well-versed in information technology, the senators said.
“The committee also noted the need for commissioners to have experience in their areas of qualification for them to efficiently and effectively undertake their duties,” a report by the senate committee that considered the Bill states.
The current Act provides that the chairperson of the commission shall be qualified to hold the office of judge of the Supreme Court under the constitution.
In the amendments, the lawmakers included information and communication technology and accounting to the list of fields that a person to be commissioner should have at least experience in.
The senators also approved amendments that provided that the Senate and its relevant committees be involved in the electoral boundary delimitation process.
The Bill now heads back to the National Assembly, which had passed it, for concurrence.
If the sister House agrees with the amendment, the proposed law will be sent to President William Ruto for signing into law.
However, should they reject the changes, the Bill will be sent to a mediation committee to iron out the contentious clauses.
The revelations provide light at the end of the tunnel on the recruitment of new IEBC commissioners.
The electoral agency has remained without commissioners since January last year, stagnating crucial operations including by-elections in constituencies and wards.
Banisa constituency, for instance, has not had an MP since March last year. The area MP, Kullow Hassan, died in an accident last year.
However, the commission secretariat cannot conduct the by-election due to a lack of a chairman who is mandated to gazette the vacancy and the by-election date.
Besides by-elections, boundary reviews were to be done by the end of March, but that is yet to happen, staging a constitutional crisis.
Up to 27 constituencies are affected following the delayed review.
Chairman Wafula Chebukati and his two colleagues, Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye, retired in January last year.
The other four commissioners, including vice chairperson Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi and Justus Nyanga’ya resigned to evade facing a tribunal over their conduct in the 2022 elections.
The lot rejected the presidential results that declared Ruto the winner of the hotly contested polls.
However, commissioner Irene Cherop faced the Justice Aggrey Chelule-led tribunal that eventually recommended her ouster over her conduct in the polls.
The new Bill, one of the proposed laws drafted by the National Dialogue Committee, expands the IEBC selection panel from the current seven to nine members.
“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,” it reads in part.
The provision automatically collapses the current selection panel headed by Nelson Makanda.
The panel stopped its work to pave the way for the dialogue that came in the wake of street protests against the government.
It provides that two persons will be from the Parliamentary Service Commission – to represent the majority party or coalition of parties and the minority party or coalition of parties.
Three persons would be nominated by the Political Parties Liaison Committee, one from the Law Society of Kenya and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya.
The Interreligious Council of Kenya has two slots while the Public Service Commission lost its slot in the changes.
It sets timelines within which the nominating bodies and the President have to set up the selection panel.
The proposed law also bars the IEBC vice chairperson from taking up the role of chairperson in case of a vacancy in the office.
“The proposed amendment barring other persons from performing the duties of the chairperson of the commission sought to align the Act with the court’s judgement,” the committee said.
Other changes include the requirement that only parties with more than 17 members in Parliament may nominate a representative to the selection panel.
“A parliamentary party means a party or coalition of parties consisting of not less than five per cent of the membership of the National Assembly and the Senate,” the changes read.
Parliament has been fast-tracking the Bill to allow the recruitment of new IEBC commissioners.
