Mudavadi: politicians are frustrating reconstitution of IEBC

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has accused politicians of frustrating the reconstitution of the electoral commission through the court process.

 Mudavadi said there had been a multi-sectorial and political agreement on rebuilding the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and any attempts to halt the process using courts were misguided.

 Speaking at the launch of the Information and Communication Technologies Digital Hub and Digital Economy Conference at Kakamega County Polytechnic, Mudavadi noted that President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga had agreed on the creation of the IEBC and questioned why some politicians were keen on scuttling the process.

 "Majority of leaders and Kenyans are keen on a new commission led by President Ruto and Raila, but there are a few leaders who are hellbent on seeing the country without the election body. Their move is driven by malice," said Mudavadi.

 He called on leaders who had gone to court, some using proxies, to drop the cases and allow the country to get a new leadership for the IEBC.

 "Apart from any by-elections, there is also the need for the country to begin the review of boundaries ahead of the elections," said Mudavadi.

 Mudavadi urged leaders to work hard and implement their manifestos in the remaining two years, noting that electorates would make their decisions based on the next 24 months.

 "We have already finished two years, and there are another two before electorates make the final decision. No leader should waste time on unnecessary bickering and empty politics," said Mudavadi.

 He stated that the Kenya Kwanza government was on the right track, aiming to improve the livelihoods of Kenyans and the country's economy.

 Mudavadi's issue on the IEBC was echoed by Kakamega Governor Fernandez Barasa, who also called for the need to recommend.

 During the meeting, Mudavadi said the government had put 22,000 government services online and noted he would consider having police recruitment done online as the first stage.

 "In the spirit of transparency, we will have the first stage of police recruitment through a digital platform to cut out middlemen who were making money from the recruitment process," noted Mudavadi.

 Mudavadi also mentioned that the Occurrence Book (OB) at the police would be digitised to remove the possibility of pages being tampered with.

 "We fully embrace online services on all fronts to ensure we simplify how people work and weed out corruption through the interaction of paperwork," he added.

 Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa also weighed in on the delay in reconstituting the IEBC, echoing Deputy President Kindiki's sentiments.

 Barasa expressed his support for the government's position, stating that the delay was a direct result of a court injunction that had halted the recruitment of new commissioners.

 "Our leaders, led by President William Ruto and Raila Odinga, have shown goodwill and statesmanship in forming the IEBC to strengthen democracy according to the constitution, to actualise the by-elections we have, and to prepare for the 2027 general election,” noted Barasa.

 He added, “My call to our leader is to support our leaders in forming the IEBC, and we want to tell our DP to be free to traverse the Western region for the benefit of development.”