High Court extends orders barring IEBC from recruiting new CEO

The process of recruiting a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will wait a little longer after the High Court extended orders barring the commission from going on with the process.

Employment and Labor Court Justice Byrum Ongaya extended the orders on Monday and directed that the case be heard on July 10, 2019.

In the case, Chama Cha Mawakili (CCM) argued that IEBC failed to meet the open, transparent and competitive test set by the Constitution.

“Pending interparty hearing or further orders of the court, there be a stay of the process of recruiting, selecting, interviewing, appointing or otherwise filling submissions the vacancy in the office of the Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the IEBC,” read court the papers.

They claim the commission refused to disclose information on the shortlisted candidates and the reasons thereof within 14 days upon closure of the submissions.

It is CCM’s argument that the imminent consequence of not stopping the current recruitment process is that the commission shall end up with an unsuitable CEO on account of having been selected through a process that is not open, transparent and competitive.

“If the process of recruitment and interviews for the position if the CEO continues, the commission will shortlist, propose and send to the National Assembly from the illegally shortlisted candidates names of individuals for the nomination and eventual appointment by the president,” they stated.

They further claimed that IEBC, through a vacancy notice dated May 21, 2019, and signed by the Chairperson, invited members of the public to apply for the position of CEO with the applicant deadline being 5.00 pm on June 3, 2019.

According to them, on June 7, the commission told the public that they had received 95 applications and promised to publish the full list together with the shortlisted candidates.

“However, on June 11, the public learnt through the local dailies that the commission had shortlisted 10 candidates of the 95 applicants contrary to their press release,” added court papers.

They say that IEBC has not explained to the public the reasons and justification for shortlisting the 10 candidates and why the remaining ones were never shortlisted.

The lawyers further claimed they wrote to the IEBC requesting for list of all applicants when the evaluation and review of the applicant documents were carried out.

They also want to know the reasons justifying the scores for each of the shortlisted applicants and the list of all the Human Resource or Consulting firms that tendered or were offered the opportunity to review, evaluate and shortlist the applicant.