This archive report was first published on 17 June 2020.
NGENO: Forget Scepticism and Empower IEBC ¶
As the 2022 general election approaches, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is once again under the spotlight. The reasons for this scrutiny are not new: incompetence and partisanship. However, the author of this piece argues that the IEBC needs support and empowerment to effectively carry out its duties.
When the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) and Interim Independent Boundary Review Commission (IIBRC) were established in 2009, there was a desire for sweeping electoral reforms. The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), chaired by Samuel Kivuitu, was blamed for the 2007/8 post-election violence. However, the new commissions failed to address the root causes of the problem.
Fast forward to the present, and the IEBC is facing criticism for its handling of the 2017 polls. The commission posted an analysis of the results, which was later corrected and explained. However, the value of the exercise was lost because nobody went back to read the updated document. The disaggregated data from election results gives more information than just listing winners and losers. It highlights voting trends, gender, youth, and so on.
The IEBC was probably trying to assert itself as the primary custodian of comprehensive election information. However, the commission operates in challenging circumstances. In the past, the IEBC complained that it lacked both the money and census data to undertake boundary delimitation. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics later provided the data, and the National Treasury allocated it a Sh500 million budget. However, when Covid-19 struck, the government froze expenditure and took back most of the funds, leaving the IEBC with only Sh156 million for preliminaries.
Despite these challenges, the IEBC needs to tell us its strategy for the next polls and beyond. This will allow us to give our feedback and support the commission in its duties. The gap left by the four commissioners who resigned should also be filled immediately, as the term of the chairman and the two remaining commissioners ends in 2023.
Mr Ngeno, a lecturer on Public Administration at Kenya Highlands University, Kericho, is a former official of the Electoral Commission of Kenya.
