Payback? Former poll officials land top jobs
From left: Director-General, Communications Authority of Kenya Ezra Chiloba, Independent Policing Oversight Authority board member Praxedes Tororey, Economic Planning Principal Secretary nominee James Muhati and Data Protection Commissioner Immaculate Kassait.
President William Ruto’s nomination of Mr James Muhati as Economic Planning Principal Secretary marked yet another addition to a growing list of past electoral officials who have landed plum state jobs.
Mr Muhati, who had been appointed by Dr Ruto’s predecessor as Huduma Kenya's chief executive, a position that placed him at the centre of the August 2022 polls, left the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on March 25, 2020.
A day after he exited the IEBC, where he served as information technology boss, Mr Muhati was named by then President Uhuru Kenyatta to the Huduma Kenya job.
Other former poll officials who went on to land plum positions include former IEBC Secretary and Chief Executive Ezra Chiloba, who is now Director-General, Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), Ms Immaculate Kassait, who was last year named the Data Protection Commissioner, and Ms Anne Nderitu, the Registrar of Political Parties.
Communications Authority (CA) of Kenya Director General Ezra Chiloba.
Former commissioners who have been awarded include Ms Consolata Nkatha Maina, Dr Paul Kurgat and Ms Margaret Mwachanya, all of who were in 2020 handed top diplomatic roles by then-President Kenyatta.
Also on the list is Ms Praxedes Tororey, a former director of Legal at IEBC, who is now a member of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) board.
Specific interests
University of Nairobi lecturer Herman Manyora takes a dim view of the appointments, saying the IEBC has never been free and that whoever gets appointed there has specific interests to safeguard at the behest of authorities.
“There is always an invisible hand behind the commission. Contrary to its name, it has never been independent. Powerful people in government always want to micromanage it,” says Mr Manyora.
Current IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati has been hailed by President Ruto as a hero over his handling of the 2022 General Election, despite protestations to the contrary by the opposition and a section of the civil society.
If the trend of the past three years is anything to go by, Mr Chebukati could be headed for greater things once his tenure at the commission comes to an end in January 2023.
“It is the reason the personnel at the commission are always singing and dancing to the tune of someone else. In the end, those who sing or dance the best get a safe landing, largely in the form of appointments,” Mr Manyora adds.
Mr Chiloba was sent on compulsory leave on June 14, 2018, over a litany of audit queries relating to the procurement ahead of the August 8, 2017, General Election and the fresh election held on October 26 following a Supreme Court order.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court temporarily blocked his suspension, the commission suspended him just hours after his reinstatement by the High Court.
Mr Chiloba was finally sacked from the IEBC by Mr Chebukati on October 12, 2018.
But three years later, on September 28, 2021, Mr Chiloba was appointed Director-General of the CA for four years.
On her part, Ms Kassait, who had served as Director of Voter Registration and Election Operations at IEBC, was on November 16, 2020, appointed the country’s inaugural Data Protection Commissioner.
Ms Kassait’s office is a creation of the Data Protection Act, under Article 260 (q) of the Constitution.
Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait.
The office is mandated to maintain a register of data controllers and regulate the processing of personal data, such as health data and biometrics.
Before Ms Nderitu’s appointment as the acting Registrar of Political Parties on August 10, 2018, and subsequent confirmation to the office in September 2020, following vetting and approval by the National Assembly, she was the manager in charge of training at the IEBC.
“I left the commission in good standing and I always strive to work hard and improve systems so that those who come later can learn from me,” says Ms Nderitu.
Ms Tororey was the Director of Legal and Public Affairs at IEBC until September 22, 2017, when she announced her retirement.
In 2018, months after her retirement, then-President Kenyatta appointed her to the IPOA board.
Mr Barasa Nyukuri, a political analyst and governance expert, says some of these appointments raise questions.
“If indeed the commission found Mr Chiloba’s continued stay in office untenable, why was he given a state appointment? He might not have been charged in court over the claims raised by the commission, but, again, why wasn’t he charged? And why did the allegations just fizzle out?” wonders Mr Nyukuri.
Ms Maina, a former IEBC vice-chairperson, as well as members Kurgat and Mwachanya, announced their resignation from the commission on April 16, 2018.
They cited lack of confidence in the chairman, Mr Chebukati, whom they accused of failing to provide the required leadership.
Their resignation was preceded by the exit of Dr Roselyn Akombe, just days before the fresh presidential election of October 26, 2017, following the annulment of then-President Kenyatta’s victory on September 1, 2017, by the Supreme Court.
From left: Former IEBC commissioners Paul Kurgat (left), Margaret Mwachanya and Connie Maina. Ms Maina, Mr Kurgat and Ms Mwachanya now serve as deputy heads of Kenya’s missions in Rome, Moscow and Islamabad respectively.
Deputy heads of missions
On October 15, 2020, President Kenyatta named the three former IEBC commissioners – Ms Maina, Mr Kurgat and Ms Mwachanya – as deputy heads of Kenya’s missions in Rome, Moscow and Islamabad, respectively, where they are still serving.
But even as IEBC commissioners and top officials get top jobs, others have, however, not been as lucky.
Former chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan is among those who are yet to get state jobs.
Ms Mahiri Zaja, who was Mr Hassan’s vice-chairperson at the commission, applied for the position of Judge of the High Court, but the Judicial Service Commission is yet to complete the recruitment process.
It also remains to be seen whether Mr Boya Molu, whose tenure at the commission ends in January next year, will be given a state job.
Mr Molu, who applied for the position of Principal Secretary, was shortlisted after interviews and also made it to the list of 250 sent to the President for nomination, but was not among the 51 individuals who were nominated.
The IEBC has over the past few years been in the vortex of Kenya’s power politics, with officials getting caught up in the clash of political interests between those in government and the opposition.
Working at the agency as a commission or senior managers is one of the most dreaded jobs, as careers can be easily made or destroyed based on the political outcomes of each election cycle.
