Mutula: Boundaries Bill not in my office

By Martin Mutua

The saga surrounding the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Bill (IEBC) seems back to square one.

Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo told The Standard he was misled that the Bill had been forwarded to his office.

"I immediately called the Attorney General to find out what the problem was and he told me that the Bill was still in Parliament," he added.

When contacted, the Clerk of the National Assembly Patrick Gichohi said the Bill was returned to the AG’s office in 45 minutes after it was brought to the House.

Efforts to get comment from Wako were fruitless as he was said to be in the Judicial Service Commission panel interviewing candidates for High Court judges.

On Monday Mutula said the "paper dance" between the AG and Parliament did not augur well for the implementation of the Constitution.

Assenting crurial

"This is irritating. I expected the legal team from the AG’s office and Parliament to meet and verify amendments. This could only take a day not a month," he added.

He said the assenting of the Bill was crucial to pave way for picking of the commissioners, who will prepare for the General Election next year.

When the proposed law comes into effect, Kenya’s political landscape is set to change drastically with the creation of 80 constituencies.

Apart from adoption of the amendment of the fifth schedule that relates to the controversial Ligale report on boundaries, the new body has been mandated to resolve all issues that arose from that report and then publish its final report within a period of four months after being put in place.

For the first time, a stern warning has been sent out to a member of the commission who knowingly subverts the process of a free and fair elections.

Those found guilty according to the new law could be sent to jail for a term not exceeding three years or a fine not exceeding one million shillings or both.

The Bill further states that any person convicted of any such offence shall not be eligible to hold any public office for a period of 10 years after conviction.

The proposed law also gives the new body mandate to use the Ligale report as primary reference material adopted by Parliament and used as secondary reference material report of the parliamentary committee of the former boundaries commission.

According to the Bill the issues arising out of the first review are the redistribution of wards or administrative units in the affected constituencies as may be appropriate.

However, this may be subject to the Constitution addressing issues of new constituencies falling outside the population quota as provided for by article 89 (6) of the Constitution at the same time ensuring that such a process takes into account several factors.

They include provisions of article 89 (7), which stipulates that in undertaking this work the Commission shall consult all interested parties and progressively work towards ensuring that the number of inhabitants in each constituency and ward is, as nearly as possible to the population quota.

According to proposed new law the new body shall prepare and publish a preliminary report outlining the proposed new boundaries for all the 290 constituencies as well as the wards and the specific geographical and demographical details relating to such delimitation.

And the commission shall ensure that the preliminary report is made available to the public for a period of 21 days and invite presentations from the public.

Upon expiry of the 21 days the commission shall review the proposed delimitation of the boundaries considering the views received and submit the revised preliminary report of the proposed boundaries to the Parliamentary committee.