Petition seeks to stop 2027 elections over delayed IEBC boundary review

A petition has been filed at the High Court seeking to stop next year's elections until the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) redraws the country's constituency and ward boundaries.

Petitioner Philip Kipkemoi Langat stated that the IEBC violated the Constitution by failing to complete a boundary review by March 2024, the deadline set under Article 89.

The last review was conducted in 2012. Langat argues that while the absence of commissioners may explain the delay, it does not excuse it, and that the IEBC's constitutional duty did not lapse when the deadline passed.

Langat is asking the High Court to restrain the IEBC from conducting or supervising elections to any elective body or office before reviewing the number, names and boundaries of constituencies and wards.

He is also asking the court to determine whether the constitutional timeframe for reviewing electoral boundaries has expired and, if so, what remedies are available.

The petition further asks the court to determine whether elections held before a review of constituency and ward boundaries would be constitutionally valid.

Langat is also asking the court to determine whether the failure to conduct the review amounts to a constitutional crisis under Article 89 of the Constitution.

Article 89 requires the IEBC to review the names and boundaries of constituencies at intervals of not less than eight years and not more than 12 years. The Constitution also requires any review to be completed at least 12 months before a General Election.

The last boundary review was published in March 2012, meaning the latest review should have been completed by March 2024.

The IEBC went for years without commissioners following resignations, removals from office and retirements. A new commission was sworn in in July 2025.

However, Langat argues that the commission has yet to take meaningful steps towards conducting the exercise.

"The delimitation exercise is a constitutional exercise. It has to be carried out based on what the Constitution says, within a certain limit. That limit has been exceeded, as you are aware. Delimitation ought to have been carried out a long time ago," Langat said.

Langat says the constitutional window for a boundary review to take effect in the 2027 election closed 12 months before polling, a deadline he says passed in August 2026.

"It's either they come out and tell us why that exercise has not been carried out, and if it's not carried out, we are asking the court to stop the elections," Langat said.

The Attorney General, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and Katiba Institute have been enjoined in the case as interested parties.