IEBC's Sh 35b price tag for next elections
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Thursday told MPs that it had trimmed its initial budget for the next General Election from Sh 41.4 billion to Sh 35 billion.
The Commission insists the reviewed Sh 35 billion cost will be the bare minimum needed to conduct the General Election and a possible presidential run-off.
Issack Hassan, the chairman of the IEBC and the Chief Executive James Oswago, told the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee at Nairobi’s County Hall on Thursday that their initial request to the Treasury was Sh41.4 billion.
Treasury however reduced the requested amount by more than half when it earmarked Sh17.5 billion to IEBC for the next General Election.
They lamented that Treasury had cut down their budget without getting back to the IEBC on why it had sought the huge amount.
“A presidential re-run is as good as a General Election. The minimum that we feel we really need now is Sh 35 billion,” said Mr Oswago.
They said that the huge budget was to cater for the second round of the elections, which most opinion polls in recent weeks have predicted.
A second round of the presidential polls will arise if none of the contenders raises the 50 per cent plus one, the majority required to assume leadership of the country.
Mr Hassan and Mr Oswago said the bulk of the money would go into voter registration, which is essentially a one-off expense, because, they are out to clean up the register.
“We have prepared ourselves for a run-off, which is like another General Election. The Budget of the election might look big, but if there’s no run-off, the country actually saves,” said Mr Hassan.
The IEBC team disowned the Cabinet brief sent to newsrooms last week which read: “Cabinet recommended that the IEBC be allocated the full 17.5 billion shillings it has requested in order to ensure a smooth, credible, peaceful, free and fair election”.
“Sometimes it is good to give the professionals the benefit of the doubt,” said Mr Oswago.
They were piqued that the Treasury had insisted on 23,000 polling stations, meaning that it will take longer for the people to vote and is likely to push the IEBC to hold elections over two or three days.
“I don’t know if Kenyans will accept that. In Sudan, they were voting for nine seats (Kenya is voting for six seats), they did it for three days,” said Mr Hassan.
Mr Hassan said the Cabinet meeting approved the budget presented to it by the Treasury, and not what the commission had presented to the Treasury.
“The Cabinet brief did not quote the commission, neither was the commission called for comment.,” said Mr Hassan.
Mr Hassan said the Cabinet meeting approved the budget presented to it by the Treasury, and not what the commission had presented to the Treasury.
"Sometimes it is good to give the professionals the benefit of the doubt,” said Mr Oswago.
The two had hoped to get backing from MPs, but instead, they were told that their estimates were extravagant and ought to be cut down.
Njoroge Baiya, the acting chairman of the committee, was joined by MPs Abdikadir Mohammed (Mandera Central), George Nyamweya (nominated), Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu) in questioning the IEBC on its spending plan.
“Justice Johann Kriegler called our elections the most expensive per capita. If we’re going to spend close to Sh50 billion on elections every five years, surely, how will the economy look like? You should come up with creative and innovative ways to save money even as you do your job,” said Mr Mohammed.
The MPs termed the IEBC budget as “mindboggling” and asked the commissioners to go back and come up with rationalised figures.
“We want you to show us how you can run elections with the reality that we have using the figure that the Treasury is telling you to use,” said Mr Ruto.
The IEBC had argued that the litigation budget –on the anticipated costs of suits—was at Sh1.8 billion. The commission said it needed 100 million ballot papers, plus, 270,000 electoral officials.
To administer oaths to these officials would cost Sh135 million, at the rate of Sh500 per person. The registration of voters will involve 25,000 officials, working for two days each at a rate of Sh4,000 per day plus accommodation and other allowances. The budget for training the workforce was Sh200 million.
MPs asked the IEBC to take up austerity measures to cut some of the costs.
“This is an election year, why do you want to spend Sh300 million on foreign travels? Where will you be going? Why do you want to buy new vehicles?” posed Mr Mohammed.
The MPs were adamant that the figure could be cut to half and the maximum the House was willing to part with was Sh20 billion, at least according to Mr Ruto.
But such a figure, according to the IEBC would leave it deeply constrained and carelessly exposed to the mistakes committed by the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya that bungled the 2007 elections.
“We’re doing six elections in a day. The Sh35 billion is a prudent minimalist projection. To give scope to the magnitude of the election and the expected run-off. If we didn’t do so, we’d be a very irresponsible commission,” said Mr Oswago.
