Deputy President William Ruto’s camp has expressed fear that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is not ready to effectively handle the August 9, General Election.
Speaking on the KTN News morning program on Tuesday, February 15, Kericho senator Aaron Cheruiyot wondered why IEBC doesn’t have a substantive Chief Executive Officer a few months to the election.
“The secretariat, which is the main workhouse in terms of the election management process is not firmly fixed. Even now, 4 months to the General Election, IEBC doesn’t have a substantive CEO.,” Cheruiyot said.
The outspoken lawmaker castigated the newly appointed commissioners saying they should have seen the necessity to employ key staff members immediately after they were sworn in.
“It’s a failure on the part of Commissioners, as soon as they were sworn into the office which is about two to three months ago that should have been their first business,” Cheruiyot said.
Cheruiyot added that it will be difficult for a new CEO to efficiently manage the secretariat given the limited time remaining ahead of the August election.
“Even if you are a genius of what magnitude to be given an assignment in a new posting and expect that within three to four months you would run a national exercise that involves nearly 100 thousand officers out deployed with work station of almost 40 thousand, that is not a simple exercise even the military will struggle,” Kericho senator added.
The sentiments by the DP Ruto’s close ally come after the National Assembly Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs raised an alarm about four dockets within IEBC that are led by acting officers.
The quartet in question includes CEO Hussein Marjan, who has been acting since the sacking of Ezra Chiloba in September 2017.
Others are Obadiah Kositany (acting director, finance), Joyce Ekuam (acting director, voter education, partnerships, and communications), and Chrispine Owiye (acting director, legal and public affairs).
Another DP Ruto’s close ally, Kandara MP Alice Wahome has also advised against having crucial dockets not being handled by substantive officeholders. “We must not allow senior officials of the IEBC to be in an acting capacity, we do not need to leave room for gray areas in terms of transparency in the election,” Wahome said
