IEBC to use spies to check election malpractices

The electoral agency will deploy undercover detectives to monitor politicians flouting election rules ahead of the 2022 General Election.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) revealed that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) investigators will work with the commission to detect cases of electoral malpractices.

The commission made the revelations in its presentation by Commissioner Boya Molu during a two-day national conference on the state of electoral preparedness for the 2022 elections.

“The DCI has seconded investigators to the commission under a programme that seeks to enhance investigation and prosecution of breaches of security and election malpractices during election period,” Mr Molu disclosed in his presentation.

The conference, organised by the Election Observer Group (Elog) and held at the Bomas of Kenya, sought to divulge the IEBC’s preparedness ahead of the election.

Early campaigns

There have been reports of early campaigns by leading politicians, including Deputy President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga, but the two have denied the claims.

Dr Ruto has stated that his campaigns were mere public participation exercises while Mr Odinga says his tours under the Azimio la Umoja banner are meant for unity discussions.

Yesterday, Mr Molu also disclosed that the IEBC had already developed a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) establishing a collaborative framework to enforce the Election Offences Act.

“The basis of the collaboration is to find synergy between the commission staff and the ODPP in managing cases, including election materials as exhibits, during hearing of election-related cases.”

IEBC is already working on means of ensuring adherence to the regulations on fundraisers by politicians which by law ought to have ended by December 9 – eight months to the elections.

Elections Act  

Section 26 of the Elections Act provides that (1) A person who directly or indirectly participates in any manner in any or public fundraising or harambee within eight months preceding a General Election or during an election period, in any other case, shall be disqualified from contesting in the election held during that election year or election period.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply to a fundraising for a person who is contesting an election under this Act or to a fundraising for a political party.

“Pursuant thereof, aspirants cannot participate in fundraising either by themselves or proxies within eight months to the election being on December 9, 2021.” The prohibition includes participation either by attendance or contributions.

The aim of this is to curb aspirants from influencing voters by donating funds for support.

By exception, however, as provided under Sub-section (2), aspirants or participating political parties are allowed to hold harambees to raise money for their campaigns.

“This has no cut-off-date within the meaning of subsection (2) but is a time-frame that is then regulated under the Election Campaign Financing Act, 2013 that provides for the total amount one can fundraise and period of fundraising (which timelines are now subject of the Election Campaign Financing (Amendment) Bill 2021),” Mr Molu stated.

In a gazette notice dated August 9, 2021 signed by IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati, the agency capped presidential poll spending in next year’s General Election at Sh4.4 billion.

This means that no political party can spend more than this amount during campaigns to popularise its presidential candidate to voters.

The commission also spelt out the contribution limits and penalties a candidate and political parties may incur for breaking the rule.

Collaboration

Yesterday, IEBC also reiterated that it will continue with its collaboration with the Commission for University Education (CUE) and the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) to ensure the academic certificates presented by candidates are authenticated to weed out fakes.

“The commission is in receipt of a report of the Joint Technical Sub-Committee of CUE and KNQA guidelines for recognising and equating qualifications for political aspirants during the 2022 General Elections. This will be followed by signing of a tri-partite MoU by the Commission, CUE and KNQA for the implementation of the framework.”

In a bid to address the challenges faced by the commission in the 2017 General Election where 11,155 polling stations out of 40,883 did not have the minimum standard 3G network coverage necessary for transmission of the image of results forms, IEBC, Mr Molu said, held a meeting with the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) on February 22, 2021 with the aim of addressing 3G network coverage in polling stations.

The meeting, among others, established a joint technical committee to map out polling stations that will not be covered by 3G network during elections for purposes of planning and informing the public, he said.

[email protected]