OTANI: Can the Issack Hassan-led IEBC be trusted?

OTANI: Can the Issack Hassan-led IEBC be trusted?

Ahmed Issack Hassan, chair of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC); a soft spoken man and widely viewed as zealous as far as electoral reform matters are concerned, is the name on every Kenyan lips, at least until late 2017.

He is clearly a different breed from Samuel Kivuitu, the late firebrand chairman of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) that bungled the 2007 General Elections resulting in the worst poll skirmishes in the country.

Hassan earned the respect and admiration of a majority of Kenyans after being appointed to chair the Interim Independence Electoral Commission (IIEC) from May 2009 to November 2011, before being appointed to head IEBC that replaced IIEC.

He stood out during Kajiado Central by-elections that preceded the General Elections of March 2013 and imbued confidence among a majority of Kenyans, as evidenced in most opinion polls and especially after the 2007/08 violence that left more than 1,300 people dead and more than 600,000 others displaced, a blemish on our nation’s conscious that refuses to go away.

However, the details that have emerged over dubious procurement practices in the last few years have painted a not-so-rosy picture of the operations in the electoral body including the procurement of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits and alleged political manipulations and interests.

First, the IIEC bribery claims codenamed “chicken-gate” saw two bosses of UK printing firm Smith and Ouzman jailed after being convicted for bribing Kenyan poll officials to win ballot printing contracts, after a four-year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office that unearthed damning emails between the British firm and Kenyan poll officials and documents proving corrupt dealings and the rot at IIEC. Locally, we were not moved; Issack Hassan was at the helm.

Ahead of the March 4th, 2013 General Elections, IEBC controversially procured BVR kits. According to the Auditor General’s report to the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee, damning revelations of massive losses and flouting of procurement laws were undressed. The report unearthed how IEBC single-sourced the BVR kits from the Canadian government through a ‘government-to-government’ agreement resulting to a loss of about Ksh 3.9 billion tax payers money.

A further Ksh 1.3 billion is believed to have been spent by IEBC in procurement of an additional 15,000 laptops for use in the Electronic Voter Registration (EVID) exercise, against the advice of the poll body’s ICT director that a similar number of laptops procured for BVR would serve the purpose.

Hassan has all along maintained his innocence amid claims that he, in one way or the other, participated in the dubious dealings. He has refused to take responsibility while denying any knowledge of the shady dealings in the electoral body.

Before the 2013 elections, questions were raised on the viability of deploying technology in the electoral process given the short period of the equipment arrival in the country and the poll date, the time needed to train poll officials to use the technology adequately and their supply to the polling stations.

However, the IEBC boss always brushed the concerns assuring the electorate that all is well until the BVR and EVID kits failed miserably in almost all stations across the country during the elections, forcing the polling clerks to revert to manual vote counting and tallying, and in the process breeding suspicion especially from the opposition CORD.

Upon the announcement of results, CORD expressed its dissatisfaction with the outcomes and contested the results at the Supreme Court citing possibilities of massive rigging in favour of Uhuru Kenyatta, the then Jubilee Coalition candidate and now the President.

After the 2013 polls, Issack Hassan and his commissioners embanked on verbal exchanges with the opposition over IEBC’s credibility and ability to convincingly handle the 2017 General Election, with Hassan insisting his team rides on integrity.

Leaders in the ruling Jubilee Coalition have been largely content with the Hassan-IEBC as they deem that it favours them, and have expressed strong opposition to calls by CORD to disband it.

However, many questions remain unanswered with the last survey by IPSOS Kenya showing that only 42 percent of Kenyans have confidence in IEBC to manage the 2017 General Elections.

In any modern democracy, Hassan would have been the first to take responsibility for the ills at IIEC and later the controversies bedevilling IEBC. The issues being raised by CORD, unpopular as they may sound, are valid given the 2007 hindsight and the already soiling political environment promising a tight race in 2017.

What will be the expected outcome should we go to a presidential election in 2017 with a majority having lost confidence in IEBC as currently constituted? Can Hassan look Kenyans in the eye and promise a free, fair and credible poll?

If I were Hassan, I would quit IEBC, culpable or guiltless of past poll sins, just for the sake of raising public confidence in the commission ahead of the 2017 elections and reduce chances of conducting a hotly contested poll that might result in him pocketing all the blame should more adverse issues arise.

Is he willing to take that risk?

Want to send us a story? Submit on Wananchi Reporting on the Citizen Digital App or Send an email to wananchi@royalmedia.co.ke or Send an SMS to 25170 or WhatsApp on 0743570000

Leave a Comment

Comments

No comments yet.

latest stories