IEBC must be reconstituted, November 1 set as poll date

The IEBC is about to doom Kenya with an unfathomable constitutional crisis if it doesn’t vacate October 26 as the new date for the fresh presidential poll.

If the same IEBC couldn’t get the August 8 election right after five years of “planning,” why would it be ready in less than 60 days?  On this issue, the IEBC has only one friend – Section 140(3) of the Constitution which gives it until November 1 to conduct a new poll.

That’s what the IEBC must do – take every waking second provided by the national charter to get the fresh election right. The IEBC – with Kenya on its back – is rushing us into an inferno. Otherwise, bullheadedness is akin to suicidal stupidity and treason.

Let me tell you why. First, the IEBC leadership stands impugned and delegitimised. The IEBC, while technically an independent constitutional commission, has lost any moral authority and legitimacy to dictate the terms of the next poll.

 The ruling of the Supreme Court found the IEBC to have violated both the Constitution and election laws. Thus, the IEBC can’t plunge right ahead without major, and fundamental charges. In fact, its senior officials should be prosecuted for committing illegal acts.

 That’s why the IEBC doesn’t have the power to set by fiat a date for the fresh election. Only a process of re-legitimisation can endow the IEBC with new authority to carry out one of the most sacred duties in the republic. 

PREDATORY STATE

Secondly, the IEBC doesn’t belong unto itself. It’s a deputised agency. It’s the people of Kenya who have given it the authority to carry our wishes. The people are its principal masters and stakeholders. Political parties are its secondary stakeholders.

That’s why the IEBC would do well to seek penance from the people and the political parties, and then accede to their wishes. In Kenya, as in every other society on the planet, the people are usually represented by either their political leaders, or by the civil society.

The only way the IEBC can again be legitimate is through a process of cleansing, pursuant to the dictates of the people – the civil society, leaders, and the political parties.

Third, it’s utterly unconscionable that the CEO Ezra Chiloba, his senior staff, and the Chairman Wafula Chebukati, and the commissioners have failed to grasp the depth of their own illegitimacy. We know that they are hopelessly divided among themselves.

We know that among them are criminal suspects. How then do they expect the public to let them set the poll date willy-nilly without full consultation with the people of Kenya, civil society and political leaders? If NASA and its presidential candidate Raila Odinga have been consulted, how can the IEBC legitimately insist to set a date?

Does the IEBC’s intransigent leadership want to test what will happen to Kenya if NASA doesn’t participate in the poll in October?

HUMILIATING RETREAT

Fourth, why should the IEBC rush headlong into an election on October 26 when it knows fully well that it will be completely unprepared? If Mr Chiloba and his key underlings at the IEBC have to be replaced – which they must before the poll – how can October 26 make sense?

 Their replacements will need at least several weeks to master the machinery for a free and fair poll. However, it seems that Chiloba and his senior aides want to hang on until it’s too late to replace them. This much is clear – no election can go forward whether on October 26 or November 1 as long as Chiloba and his factotums are in place. It’s simply unacceptable.

Fifth, Mr Chebukati himself appears to be flummoxed – he’s either incompetent, or complicit with the forces of darkness. He’s completely failed to assert himself and bring the much junior Chiloba to heel. The job is obviously too big for Chebukati.

He seems unable, or unwilling, to buck the predatory State. Every time State House barks, he cowers into a corner.

The chairmanship of IEBC isn’t a job for cowards or the faint of heart. Even his wily and cunning predecessors Samuel Kivuitu and Isaack Hassan were consumed by the leviathan. In the end, their epitaphs may be ones of infamy. Unfortunately, Chebukati appears to have followed suit. That’s why he too must graciously bow out and give way to a resolute chair.

Finally, key institutions are being daily taken over by the Jubilee regime. Last week, former Meru Governor Peter Munya joined NASA only to beat a humiliating retreat after a meeting in State House. Within days, the Registrar of Political Parties reinstated him as PNU leader.

Mr Munya had to return “home” for his woes to end.  The IEBC is similarly broken. It must be reconstituted and November 1 set as the date for the fresh poll.