IEBC supports Attorney-General, Azimio in legal battle over coalition parties legislation

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Director, Legal Services Chrispine Owiye. [David Njaaga, Standard]

The electoral agency has supported an argument by the government and Azimio la Umoja movement that a case filed by the civil society challenging a new law on coalition parties should be dismissed.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) argues that although its views on the Political Parties (Amendment) Act, 2022, were not factored in the final law, Parliament had followed all the processes to make the law legal.

IEBC Legal Director Chrispine Owiye said the august House was careful to avoid overlaps between IEBC’s role and that of other government agencies.

Ms Owiye said that initially there was overlap between the electoral body and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on prosecution of election offences.

But Parliament repealed sections of the Elections Act and returned prosecutorial power to the DPP.

The Political Parties (Amendment) Act, 2022, was passed by the National Assembly and the Senate in January and signed into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta on January 27.

The law provides that political parties seeking to form a coalition party must submit their agreement to the Registrar of Political Parties by April 9. It also allows them to field joint candidates for elections.

But the civil society argued that the law was enacted without public participation.