The decision by High Court judges Roseline Aburili, John Chigiti and Bahati Mwamuye, which has paved the way for President William to Gazette the appointment of electoral commissioners and their chairman is one of the most important to have come from the corridors of justice this year.
Since the exit of former chairman Wafula Chebukati in January 2023, the resignation of three others and firing of one in 2022 and the retirement of two others in 2023, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has been in a dangerous limbo.
For one, there are several byelections that need to be conducted following the death of several MCAs and MPs. One other legislative seat also fell vacant as a result of an election petition and all the seats remain vacant to date, denying the affected voters the right to representation.
More critically, the constitutional requirement for the commission to carry out a boundaries review risked putting the 2027 election at risk of being declared null and void because there are prescribed timelines that must be met and which the electoral commission has breached.
There is, however, a ray of hope that the reconstituted can either ask for more time to initiate and carry out the review or decide that the boundaries as they are do not need to be reviewed. This will help it to safeguard the integrity of the 2027 election.
The positive development notwithstanding, there is still a big challenge ahead of the new team and they have a lot of work to do if they are to win the confidence of an already cynical public and inspire new faith in IEBC.
First, they will need to assure Kenyans that what was recently described as a “scheduled routine maintenance” of its portal did not, and would not, in any way interfere with the integrity of the voters’ register. This is important given the high levels of mistrust among Kenyans who view every move by government institutions as suspect.
That the portal was inaccessible to the public at a time when the IEBC secretariat had not communicated about the maintenance raised questions, with many Kenyans reading a sinister motive. The incoming team ought to use this as a lesson in how to build public trust if they are to succeed in their mission.
Secondly, they will need to speed up voter registration and education because there are millions of young people who are literally dying to register as voters. The commission ought to anticipate and plan for an avalanche of registration requests and it will be critical to ensure that the process is seen to be efficient as well as transparent. This will not only require money — at a time when IEBC is under-resourced — it also requires IEBC to hire and train the staff who will carry out the registration and education.
It will also be prudent for it to invest in technologies that will make the registration process seamless because this will be the commission’s most critical customer-facing undertaking between now and 2027. This, more than anything else, holds the key to whether they will earn the goodwill of Kenyans are not.
One other thing that the commission ought to get right from the word go is procurement. Many government institutions are currently bogged down by pending bills, some dating back several years. This is a trap that the IEBC bosses will be wise to avoid. They should only procure the goods and services they know they will afford to pay for and avoid the temptation of accumulating unsustainable debt.
That means its inventory must be reviewed every quarter to sustain an organisational culture that prioritises payment of debts on due dates. If IEBC gets this right, it will be much easier for it to execute its mandate, particularly with regard to the procurement of 2027 elections materials and related services.
Finally, the commissioners ought to find ways to ensure the personal safety of secretariat staff and election management officers, particularly constituency tallying officers.
In the past, IEBC has been rocked by controversial murders, disappearances, and threats against of critical staff. The new team will not only need a policy on staff and commissioner security but also a fail-safe method of responding to threats and attacks.
It is important for the IEBC to succeed, so the commissioners and chair must be aware that for them, failure is no longer an option. One only hopes and prays that the new leadership appreciates how critical this is to national cohesion and to ensuring Kenya’s peace and stability.
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