Uhuru picks team to steer electoral agency ahead of 2017 polls

 

IEBC Commissioners Chairman Mr. Wafula Chebukati

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday nominated lawyer Wanyonyi Wafula Chebukati as the chairman of the electoral agency.

The President also picked six commissioners to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) who will be in charge of the 2017 polls.

In a statement to the newsroom, President Kenyatta picked Consolata Nkatha Bucha, Boya Molu, Roselyn Akombe, Paul Kurgat, Margaret Wanjala Mwachanya and Abdi Guliye among the list of 11 shortlisted names for the commissioners.

Mr Chebukati and the six commissioners will replace the outgoing team led by Issack Hassan who resigned after a negotiated exit package.

RAISE EYEBROWS

The choice of Chebukati will likely raise eyebrows given that both him and the IEBC Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba come from the same county and community.

The Benardette Musundi-led select panel had forwarded the name of Chebukati and coast-based lawyer Tukero ole Kina as nominees for the position of the chairman and speculations were rife that Mr Kina would be picked.

It is not clear whether this will complicate the tenure of Mr Chiloba if Chebukati’s name is approved by the National Assembly.

Others who had been interviewed by the select committee to supervise the 2017 polls included former member of the Judiciary Service Commission Florence Muoti Mwangangi, one-time Mombasa mayor and lawyer Taib Ali Taib Bajabir and lawyer Lucas Leperes Naikuni.

The selection panel comprising lawyers Evans Monari and Mary Karen Kigen for Jubilee and former judge Tom Mbaluto and Ogla Chepkemboi Karani representing the interests of the Opposition used the regional balance criteria to pick the names.

The six commissioners were picked from the list of 748 including 102 with doctor of philosophy degrees.

Dr Kurgat was recently fired as the Kenyan ambassador to Moscow but his chances were higher, as he was the only one from the Rift Valley.

Though Information Technology specialist and an aide to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Zephania Okeyo Auro topped the list of those who were interviewed for the commissioners’ list followed by Roselyne Kwamboka Akombe, he was not among those picked.

VIOLENT PROTESTS

In April this year, the country was rocked by violent protests, which claimed the lives of several people as Opposition leaders demanded the disbandment of the IEBC commission, arguing they could not be trusted to manage the next general elections.

The current IEBC commission, which came into office after the bungled 2007 General Election, has been haunted by a number of scandals revolving around the purchase of the Biometric Voter Registration and how the 2013 elections were handled.

Professor Abdi Guliye is from Wajir county and a lecturer at Egerton University.

Margaret Wanjala Mwachanya, a teacher by profession from Taita Taveta, was a lecturer at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and the University of Nairobi before she was appointed to the Taita Taveta County Public Service Board.

Dr Kurgat comes from North Rift while Ms Maina hails from Meru County. Mr Boya, who is an assistant director, human resources and administration at the Judiciary, comes from Northern Kenya.