IEBC Chair Issack Hassan faces six claims as House team grills poll chiefs

Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on IEBC meeting at County hall Nairobi

NAIROBI: The electoral commission chairman, two commissioners and five secretariat staff members have been summoned to appear before the Joint Committee of Parliament on the fate of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) tomorrow.

In a summon letter dated July 29, IEBC Chairman Issack Hassan and commissioners Thomas Letangule and Mohamed Alawi have been asked to present themselves to the committee without fail to answer to allegations of credibility and integrity issues against them. Others summoned are Ezra Chiloba (chief executive officer), Beth Sungura Nyabuto (deputy secretary), Immaculate Kassait (director of election operations and voter registration), Praxedes Tororey (director of legal and corporate affairs), and Bernard Nyachio (procurement manager).

Irregular procurements

According to the 12-paged summon, Hassan will be put to task on six allegations that include irregularly procuring legal services for the presidential petition in 2013.

An IEBC official told The Standard on Sunday the summon to appear before the committee tomorrow was delivered to the commission on Friday night after members of staff had left for the weekend.

“It is by luck that some of our officers were still in the office at night. The committee expects the commission to respond to the allegations by Monday morning. You have a feeling that the Joint Committee is designed with a clear end in mind. The general view is that the committee has gone beyond its mandate and possibly violated the Constitution,” said the source.

He added that the allegations against the commissioners could only be raised through a petition under Article 251. “What has happened now is that the Joint Committee has more or less become a petitioner. The commissioners and secretariat have been harassed having to answer same questions at different forums - Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC), Justice and Legal Affairs Committee(JLAC), Supreme Court, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Auditor General and counting. Is the Committee now taking over the mandate of these institutions?,” said the source.

Hassan is expected to respond to allegations of failing to provide leadership, involvement in the operations of the secretariat and having vested interests in the commission.

“That the chairman engaged in irregular procurement of Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits by the Commission from Sanfran Morpho Canada through Canadian Commercial Corporation by way of single sourcing at a cost of Sh6.2 Billion,” noted the summon on another allegation.

Letangule and Alawi are expected to clear their names against allegations that they were engaged in the Sh6.2 billion irregular procurement of BVR kits.

Chiloba will be pressed to explain why he made irregular payments of Sh258 million to Face Technologies without a valid contract while Ms Nyabuto is expected to explain why she, as chair to the tender committee, awarded tender for the transportation of elections materials to an unregistered company at an exorbitant price and engaging in irregular procurement of BVRs.

Hardline stance

Chiloba is, however, likely to defend himself using a recent report by the Auditor General that absolved him over the irregular payment and instead laid the blame on immediate former CEO James Oswago.

Ms Kassait, the summon noted, was responsible for the delayed preparation of a faulty principal voters while Ms Tororey will be answering questions on why she made payment of legal fees to firms procured irregularly. Nyachio, the summon noted, was engaged in the in irregular procurement of BVR kits.

“Kindly do provide 30 copies of your submissions on the above cited allegations and any or all of the Thematic Areas attached. A soft copy should also be sent to the commitee,” reads the summon.

“Take note that should you choose not to attend before the committee on the date and time specified in this invitation, the committee, and thereafter Parliament, shall proceed with this matter in accordance with the Constitution and the law, without further reference to you,” the letter warned.

It has also emerged that CORD will re-open the debate on Okoa-Kenya when the IEBC officials appear before the committee.

The Standard on Sunday has learned that the the commissioners are not happy “on the way they are being treated” by the joint committee. The commissioners said that the parliamentary committee sent the summons at 8.30pm on Friday when most of them had already left their work stations for the weekend.

Meanwhile, the committee is still trying to deal with various differences that have emerged since its inception. CORD insists that political parties should submit names for the constitution of the  IEBC commissioners, a move that Jubilee has rejected .

The team is also divided on the period within which a presidential petition should be heard and determined. Whereas Jubilee wants it retained at 14 days, CORD wants the same to move to 60 days.

Similarly, CORD insists that presidential poll results be announced at each polling centre.