Marjan among five shortlisted for IEBC CEO job

Acting IEBC CEO Marjan Hussein Marjan.

Acting IEBC CEO Marjan Hussein Marjan. The electoral agency is seeking an additional Sh4.7 billion to meet the shortfall needed to conduct the August 9 General Election.

Photo credit: Jeff Angote l Nation Media Group

Electoral agency acting chief executive officer Marjan Hussein Marjan is among five people shortlisted for the CEO job to take over from Mr Ezra Chiloba, who was fired in September 2017.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said a total of 511 had applied for the role, out of which five were shortlisted and who will be interviewed on March 8.

Others in the shortlist are 2017 Mombasa County Election manager Nancy Wanjiku Kariuki, Mr Aura Zephaniah Okeyo, Kenyatta University lecturer Dr George Michugu Kamau, and Dr Joel Mabonga, who is the senior deputy director, corporate services at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).

Dr Mabonga had previously served as the Director-Voter Education and partnership at the IEBC. He also once served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA).

Mr Marjan, Mr Okeyo, Ms Kariuki, and Dr Mabonga had all been shortlisted in the 2019 interviews that were stopped by the courts.

A total of 10 had been shortlisted before the courts slammed its brakes on the process.

The court stopped the 2019 process after a petition by Chama cha Mawakili that had sought the court’s intervention to stop IEBC from proceeding to interview some 10 candidates that had been shortlisted.

In the petition, the group said the commission failed to hire a consultant human resource firm to lead the process and remove any doubts about conflict of interested that had started creeping into the exercise.

They also stated that IEBC failed to give a justification why some candidates were shortlisted and not others.

The criteria the commission and the question of who did the shortlisting have also been raised.

The process had also come under scrutiny after the commission secretariat was allowed to receive and compile the list of applicants yet the head of the secretariat, acting CEO Marjan Hussein, was also a candidate thus creating a conflict of interest.

For Mr Marjan, however, the shortlisting for the position, hopefully, brings to an end what has been close to a five-year stint as acting CEO.

Of the 860 applications it received for the deputy commission secretary/ chief executive officer, the IEBC has shortlisted only 10.

These are Mr Nuno Roble Said, Mr Obadiah Kipkoech Keitany, Mr Ibrahim Osman Hassan, Ms Nasiae Tobiko Paloshe, Ms Nelly Ilongo, Ms Joyce Ekuam Narumbe Idumu, Mr Fredrick Riaga Ogalo, Mr Simon Kiplang’ at Cheruiyot, Ms Ruth Kulundu Songa Khatievi, and Mr John Muhia Mwangi.

Ms Ekuam is currently the IEBC acting  director voter education, partnerships & communications.

The 10 will be interviewed on Wednesday March 9 and Thursday March 10.