What next for IEBC as Wafula Chebukati, two commissioners set to leave office?

IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati when he briefed members of the press on the preparedness of the 2022 election. [Jonah Onyango, Standard] The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is standing on one foot after three commissioners resigned in a span of one week while three others are a month shy from the end of their tenure. IEBC Commissioner Francis Wanderi became the latest to resign on Thursday, whittling down a team that once comprised seven commissioners with Juliana Cherera and Justus Nyang'aya having left office. The electoral agency is now left with chairperson Wafula Chebukati and commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye. Irene Masit is on suspension awaiting a tribunal probe into her conduct after the August 9 General Election. The four rejected the presidential results and walked out of the Bomas of Kenya before declaration of Ruto as the winner. Chebukati, Molu and Guliye are seeing out the last few days of their six-year tenure. The three were appointed together with former IEBC Vice Chairperson Connie Nkatha Maina and commissioners Roselyn Akombe, Margaret Mwachanya and Paul Kurgat who all resigned from the electoral bod after the 2017 General Election. According to the IEBC Act, commissioners are appointed for a single term of six years and are not eligible for re-appointment. The tribunal will consider whether there is merit in four petitions filed by the Republican Party, Dennis Nthumbi, Geoffrey Langat and Owuor Steve Jerry seeking the removal of the four IEBC commissioners. During Friday's status conference, Appellate Judge Aggrey Muchelule said Cherera, Masit, Wanderi and Nyang'aya have until December 19 to file their responses before hearing begins the next day. The four were appointed to office in September last year and would have lasted long enough to oversee the 2027 election. Chebukati, on the other hand, was appointed in January 2017 and will retire on January 17, slightly more than a month away. But, Molu and Guliye's continued stay in office has been criticised by Azimio la Umoja which has become Chebukati's harshest critic and the Cherera Four's biggest defenders following the fall out in IEBC after the August 9 General Election. In October, President Ruto gazzetted the vacant positions of IEBC chairperson and two members of the electoral commission from January 17, 2023. The IEBC Act requires that at least six (6) months before the lapse of the term of the chairperson or member of the Commission, the President shall appoint a seven-member panel to conduct recruitment. But that has not stopped the commissioners from continuing with their duties. The commissioners were last week involved in the internal Post-Election Evaluation Forum retreat of IEBC. The forum is to document experiences and feedback on the 2022 General Election and Moya is hopeful that they would get to launch the report before they leave office. President Ruto gazetted the vacancies, but he did not send the commissioners on terminal leave, a move that was criticised by Azimio. Azimio leader Raila Odinga repeated the demand at a meeting of his party members in Nairobi, going further to suggest that their stay in office was suspicious and was to sweep under the rug what transpired during the elections. August 9 is haunting each of their IEBC commissioners in their own way. The three who have resigned state that their intentions were misconstrued, while Masit, staying to fight on, has gone to court for orders stopping the tribunal from proceeding with the investigation. She wants the court to reinstate her and block any plans for her replacement at the IEBC.

What next for IEBC as Wafula Chebukati, two commissioners set to leave office?

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