Munya tells Committee on IEBC to move election date to 2018

The next General Election is glaring at a possible postponement until March 2018 as the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) considers that as a way to resolve the electoral body stalemate.

While appearing before the committee Friday, Council of Governors chair Peter Munya said the adjusting the dates from August 2017 to March 2018 was an option to stabilise a new team to oversee the next election.

Munya further noted that negotiating the exit package for the current commissioners should be done early enough to give way for their replacement.

Friday’s session of the select committee on IEBC tilted debate to the possibility of adjusting the election date, and pushing it to 2018, when the current Parliament will have concluded its five year term.

Munya told the Senators Kiraitu Murungi and James Orengo-led team that adjusting the date from the current date of August 8th, 2017, will not trigger any legal conflict.

IEBC has already announced that the next General Election will be held on August 8th, 2017 and has already drawn its roadmap and preparations are ongoing.

The six-year term of the Ahmed Issack Hassan at the helm of IEBC ends in November, which Munya says will give way to a new commission to run the 2018 election.

However, the debate on the change of the dates pained the Commission of Administrative Justice with its chair, Otiende Amolo, urging the committee to shelve the idea entirely and solve the IEBC stalemate through other means.

The ombudsman also recommended to the committee that at least three commissioners be foreigners to solve regional interests that might be at play.

The team has also raised concerns over the politicization of the committee’s sittings following utterances made by CORD leader Raila Odinga Thursday, that his coalition will not participate in the next polls if Hassan remains the referee.