Govt deliberately starving IEBC, ODM MPs claim

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) MPs have accused the government of starving the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Led by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, the legislators claimed that there is a plan to frustrate IEBC in order to control the voter registration exercise as part of a government scheme to rig the 2017 General Election.

Wandayi said the government is hell-bent on ensuring the number of voters registered in CORD strongholds is minimal and called for an increase in the IEBC budget.

Ruaraka MP T.J Kajwang and Homa Bay Women Representative Gladys Wanga also echoed Wandayi’s sentiments and accused the government of violating Article 89 of the Constitution, which requires the voter registration exercise to be continuous, not periodic.

The leaders were speaking at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology grounds during the commemoration of the 22^nd anniversary of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and his grandson Fidel Odinga’s 1^st anniversary.

The opposition’s sentiments come just as Treasury Cabinet Secretary proposed the slashing of IEBC’s budget to two thirds of the Sh45 billion that they had asked for.

In Rotich’s three-year financial plan, the IEBC will only be able to access Sh14.5 billion in the year ending June 30, 2017 and Sh17 billion in the year ending June 30, 2018.

By @benjaminwafula