Senators mull locking out IEBC vice chair from running poll body

Senate Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee chairperson Senator Hillary Sigei during a previous session. [File, Standard]

The vice chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission(IEBC) will not automatically become the Commission chairperson whenever a vacancy occurs if a proposal by senators on the IEBC Act is adopted.

The IEBC Act section 7A states that whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of the chairperson, the vice-chairperson shall act as the chairperson and exercise the powers and responsibilities of the chairperson until such a time the chairperson is appointed.

The Senate, Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee has introduced changes to the IEBC (Amendment) Bill, 2024 that also seeks to have the Senate and its relevant committees involved in the electoral boundary delimitation process.

The Senate Committee Chair Bomet Senator Hillary Sigei said the Bill states that IEBC commissioners have 10 years of proven experience in their areas of study with information technology as one of the key fields that commissioners ought to have experience in.

“The proposed amendment to the IEBC Act that seeks to bar the Commission vice chairperson from assuming the chairperson position automatically in case of vacancy seeks to align to a court judgment,” said Sigei.

The proposed law is one of the bills from the National Dialogue Committee (Nadco) with the Bill having already been passed by the National Assembly and is now being considered by the Senate, which seeks to input some radical amendments aimed at making the electoral process efficient.

The current Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Act provides that the chairperson of the Commission shall be a person who is qualified to hold the office of judge of the Supreme Court of Kenya.

The Act states that where the positions of chairperson and vice-chairperson are vacant, a member elected by members of the Commission shall act as the chairperson and exercise the powers and responsibilities of the chairperson until such a time the chairperson is appointed.

“Whenever the chairperson is absent, the vice chairperson shall assume the duties of the chairperson and exercise the powers and responsibilities of the chairperson,” states the IEBC act section 7B.

The IEBC Act section 7B further states that whenever the chairperson and the vice chairperson are absent, members of the commission shall elect from amongst themselves a member to act as the
chairperson and exercise the powers and responsibilities of the chairperson.

The Act states for an individual to qualify for appointment as a member of the Commission, the person must also have proven relevant experience in either electoral matters, management, finance, governance or public administration.

The Nadco Bill makes changes to the composition of the selection panel of the IEBC commissioners creating a panel of nine to recruit new commissioners while setting timelines within which the nominating bodies and the President have to set up the selection panel.

The Senate and National Assembly have been working towards ensuring that the IEBC is in place so as to conduct several pending by-elections and carry out boundaries review.