IEBC assurance on free and fair polls critical
The recent official start of the campaigns for the August 9 General Election has ushered in the last stretch in the run-up to this year’s presidential transition. With just about two months left in his second and final five-year tenure, President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to hand over the baton to his successor.
The majority of Kenyans are hoping that the campaigns and voting will be peaceful and that the new leader will take charge of a stable and united country.
Mounting calls for peace by religious leaders stem from fears of a repeat of what the country has witnessed in violent past elections. The worst was the hotly disputed 2007 presidential election, in the aftermath of which nearly 1,500 lives were lost and thousands of people evicted from their homes and farms.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which featured prominently when the Supreme Court nullified the 2017 presidential election over irregularities, has a key role to play. This is precisely why Chief Justice Martha Koome has challenged the electoral agency to address all the lingering issues ahead of the coming poll.
It must, she states, show proof that it has dealt with the integrity issues that the Supreme Court raised.
The judges found that the IEBC failed to conduct the presidential election in line with the Constitution and pointed out a number of irregularities and illegalities.
Specifically cited was the IEBC’s failure to ensure that the transmission and declaration of the results was verifiable. There were also irregularities in the transmission of the results. The agency must ensure that the process is simple, accurate, verifiable, secure, accountable and transparent.
This is the irreducible minimum for the elections to be considered to be free and fair. The IEBC, which yesterday repeated its assurances on the elections, must ensure that no such anomalies occur in the coming poll. This is what Kenyans deserve to solidify the country’s legacy as a democracy that cherishes free, fair and transparent elections.
