Human rights watchdog raises red flag on IEBC

A human rights watchdog has said the electoral commission as currently constituted is not committed to reforms.

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) Vice Chairman George Morara yesterday said the Independent Electoral Boundary Commission (IEBC) has not shown Kenyans that it has the capacity to put in place the necessary reforms to hold credible elections.

Mr Morara was speaking during the launch of the commission's baseline survey that stated 'very low' confidence level of 28 per cent from the public in the electoral body.

"From all the surveys done IEBC has never scored anything more than 30 per cent in terms of confidence. This is a concern that no one should ignore," he said.

Earlier, Election Observer Group had rated IEBC at 16 per cent confidence level making it the lowest ever rating.

KNCHR Head of Monitoring Jerim Obure said IEBC was yet to rectify its 'mess' from the 2013 general elections and it would not be recommendable for the same commission to oversee the 2017 elections.

"This will be a big problem. The installation of election infrastructure was poor and untimely leading to complete failure of electronic voting system," said Mr Obure.

Obure said the massive complaints arising from the 2013 elections did not just castigate the elections management body, but also cast serious aspersions on the conduct of political party nominations.