Echoes from 2017 and IEBC's unenviable task before and after polls

IEBC officials examining voting materialS at Moi Secondary School in London Ward on March 3, 2021, during a by-election. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Working for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in the senior ranks can be about the most difficult job in Kenya. This is especially so today, when IEBC must give Kenya its fifth president, amidst heightened political differences and tensions.  

 Since the return of multiparty democracy, with the 1992 General Election, three successive electoral authorities (the Electoral Commission of Kenya, the Interim Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and IEBC) have been the easy whipping boys of the political class. Howsoever they have done their job, someone has always been unhappy. This year is not any different. Suspicion is already soaring up in the air. Appalling claims of inadequate preparedness have been made. Curiously, part of the interrogation has come from Chief Justice Martha Koome who should, perhaps, be waiting patiently for any complaints to reach her office, after the elections.