The IEBC stalemate is a threat to peace

The un-ending debacle over plans by the opposition CORD to eject IEBC officers from office calls for an urgent need to have a sober dialogue over the current standoff in the country. While CORD maintains it will continue with its push to have the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission disbanded, the commission’s chairman Isaack Hassan said last week that he and his fellow commissioners will not resign unless CORD provides evidence that the commission is out to favour Jubilee during 2017 general election. It’s at this point that we call for a sober dialogue that will see law being adhered to. Indeed, the political atmosphere in Kenya isn’t good at all and this is scary!

Members of the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee must reconvene an urgent approach to handling the stalemate. The informal discussion that has just begin must be moved to a more formal way and sneak the whole issue of electoral reforms in the Parliament otherwise, Kenyans will also judge them harshly! The current deadlock over the current electoral commission must be sorted once and for all.  Indeed there must be a legal framework to guide the process for a fair transition in the event the commissioners decide to leave on their own volition or a petition is brought to Parliament and succeeds. The parliament must amend the entire law to safeguard electoral systems in Kenya.