Aden Duale pushes for another House team to resolve IEBC row

Leader of Majority Aden Duale has said he will table a motion to form a House select committee to resolve the impasse on poll commission.

Mr Duale said Wednesday he will forward the proposal to the National Assembly in the latest efforts to unlock the impasse on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

“I’m ready to come up with a motion on the formation of select committee to resolve the matter. The committee can comprise of five or even 10 members each. This is something that we have already discussed,” said Duale.

The comments introduce a new angle to the crisis even as a cloud hangs over the fate of twin initiatives by members of Parliament to resolve the crisis.

The Opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) on Tuesday withdrew its members from a bipartisan Parliamentary Group caucus backed by over 150 MPs.

The CORD Parliamentary Group also directed its members not to participate in any deliberations of the National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs committee touching on IEBC matters.

During the meeting, CORD members are said to have been told to choose if they wanted “to be duped by Jubilee” or stick to the Opposition coalition’s stand against any parliamentary initiative to resolve the crisis.

“The PG turned into a meeting to discuss individual members. They were being asked to explain their involvement in something that does not have the blessings of the party. They were also taken to task on what interest they had in the bi-partisan caucus,” said a member who attended the heated forum.

We won’t participate

“We are not going to participate in something that is already compromised. The Justice committee should be in the forefront of tackling sleaze in the electoral commission instead of telling us that they are going to resolve the impasse,” said Peter Kaluma (Homa Bay), a member of the Justice committee.

The Opposition has demanded that the committee prioritises debate on a damming report on the Public Accounts Committee that indicted commissioners of the IEBC.

“When you withdraw from a committee of Parliament, you are just shooting yourself in the foot. Anything agreed on even outside Parliament must eventually come to the House. In my motion to form a select committee, we can even allow them to come with the five members they had proposed for dialogue” said Duale.

The Chair of the Justice Committee Samuel Chepkonga said his committee was not worried about the decision by CORD members to walk out of his initiative that also involves the House Constitutional Implimentation Oversight Committee.