By Felix Olick
NAIROBI,KENYA: The electoral commission has stood its grounds and rejected Deputy President William Ruto’s United Republican Party (URP) nominees to Nairobi County Assembly for failing to meet requirements.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Disputes Resolution Committee struck off the names of the URP members and replaced them with bonafide TNA members whose names were on the party list.
Requirements
The disputes committee chaired by commissioner Thomas Letangule ruled that a political party could not nominate members from a different party even if they belong to the same coalition.
Women and persons with disabilities were the biggest beneficiaries following the revision of the list. The committee said various parties had failed to comply with the constitutional requirement that affirmative action be applied on vulnerable groups prompting them to replace some names.
Other casualties were those not registered as voters in areas where they were nominated and public servants who had not resigned. However, the commission declined to act on complaints of nepotism and bias arguing they could not obtain the truth.
The commission said a comprehensive list regarding each of the complainants would be uploaded on their website on Monday. The High Court had ordered IEBC to publish afresh lists for political parties’ nominees following a complaint filed by the National Gender and Equality Commission that the nominations did not meet the constitutional threshold. The court also stopped the swearing-in of nominated county representatives until the issue was heard and determined. The commission stated that party chiefs had dished out seats reserved for special groups to cronies and friends on personal, corrupt and political grounds. The commission had received about 600 complaints on county assemblies’ nominations from various parties.
