Questions raised over why IEBC ignored best candidates

Selection panel for Independent electoral and boundaries commission(IEBC) led by Chairperson Bernadette Musundi and her Vice Abdulghafur El-Busaidy. (Photo:Boniface Okendo)

Anger greeted revelations that the selection panel that recruited the men and women who will preside over August General Elections may have done a patchy job.

Panel chair Bernadette Musundi kept off media inquiries into the quality of her panel’s work as it emerged that warring panelists shot down best candidates to improve chances of their favourites. Musundi could neither answer our phone calls nor respond to mobile phone messages.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s choices of the finalists also came under fire as ODM Director of Elections Junet Mohamed complained that he refused to strictly follow rankings as well as factor in regional balancing.

High stakes

Uhuru settled on Wafula Chebukati for chair and Connie Maina, Boya Molu, Roseline Kwamboka, Kibiwott Kurgat, Margaret Wanjala and Abdi Guliye for members.

It has since turned out that the panel may not have done thorough research on some of the candidates who sailed through. Chebukati is roped in a situation in which his failure to get client instructions cost the public Sh325 million.

Maina on the other hand is caught up in uncertainty over the manner she left her last public employment at National Museums of Kenya.

“The panel appears to have done a fairly good job given the strict timelines. I fault the President for his failure to strictly follow the rankings as presented to him and for failing to consider all regions. These are elections and every region wants to feel to be part of this,” Mohamed said.

Andrew Franklin, the American security expert who applied for both chair and member was not surprised at the revelations published yesterday in Standard on Saturday. He said his biggest disappointment was with the over 700 Kenyans who applied but kept off once they were knocked out. He said the country was “playing games” as though no election was coming up and as though it had not learnt any lessons from past elections.

“It’s amazing that over 700 qualified Kenyans applied, were dismissed without any justification given to them and they kept off. They never bothered to find out on what basis they were left out but simply moved on," Franklin said. "These are the things which emboldened the panelists to play the games we read."

He claimed he will officially petition the US administration (when Donald Trump takes office) to stop funding Kenya’s electoral process on the basis of a dubious selection process. He was not short-listed for either positions.

Pollster Tom Wolf said on the basis of the reports, the process appeared to have been “horribly managed.” He was shocked at the variation of scores given by panelists  to the same candidates.

“Were they really sitting in the same interviews and exactly what was the criteria for awarding the marks? These are the questions the panel would do well to answer so as to put to rest any fears that might arise,” Wolf said.