Saturday, December 14, 2024 – President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga have been forced back to the drawing board.
This
is after the High Court declared the Independent Electoral and Boundaries
Commission (IEBC) Amendment Bill 2023 unconstitutional.
The
ruling by Justice Lawrence Mugambi comes amid a new push to reconstitute the
electoral body.
This,
in essence, throws another huddle into the already challenging process.
In
his ruling, Justice Mugambi averred to the lack of public participation as the
grounds to annul laws.
The
Bill which proposes critical changes to the institution's operations and
structure, was signed into law by Ruto.
Ruto
signed the IEBC (Amendment) Bill 2022 into law in January 2023, which required
the Selection Panel to have representatives of the Parliamentary Service
Commission, the Public Service Commission (PSC), the Political Parties Liaison
Committee (PPLC), the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), and the Inter-Religious
Council of Kenya.
The
Bill passed saw the Parliamentary Service Commission and the Inter-religious
Council of Kenya allocate two members (a man and a woman) each, while the PSC,
PPLC, and LSK had one member nominated to the panel.
Under
the new provisions, qualifications for commissioners were raised to include a
minimum of 10 years of professional experience in relevant fields such as
electoral management, finance, or ICT.
The
new law also included a new threshold requiring the candidates for the
chairperson's role to meet criteria equivalent to those of a Supreme Court
judge.
These
reforms stem from the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO), formed by President
Ruto and the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition in a deal to end the protests
that followed the 2022 polls.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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