SAM’S SENSE: IEBC - Banisa cannot wait any longer

On my Sense tonight, I focus on an issue that has troubled the country for the last 22 months. Since that day on January 17, 2023, when Wafula Chebukati, Prof. Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu retired from their positions at the IEBC.

Three constituencies and over ten wards have since lost their representatives under different circumstances. Banisa Constituency was among the first when on the 28th of March 2023, then MP Kullow Maalim Hassan died following an accident in Nairobi.

Following the Chebukati exit, the President moved to empanel a Selection Panel that was to lead the recruitment process of new commissioners. Until it didn’t any more.

On the 2nd of April 2023, President William Ruto while yielding to political pressure brought about by Azimio demonstrations conceded on the IEBC issue saying that, “courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

And that deflated the IEBC selection process. Maybe there was wisdom in that. Of what use would it be to conclude an entire recruitment process and end up with a divisive institution? Sounds persuasive, right?

Then again, the controversial Selection Panel was not an accident. It was the product of grandstanding in Parliament. Of a majority side that rode on the strength of its numbers; playing impervious to reason and persuasion, until the President spoke and gave rise to the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO).

In January 2024, High Court judge Mugure Thande directed the Nelson Makanda team to conclude the recruitment process saying, “Compliance with the Constitution should not be suspended for the sake of political expediency.” The judge went ahead to observe that the said bipartisan talks were not anchored in either the Constitution or the law, justifying the court’s intervention.

Yet here we are. NADCO concessions have yielded into an Act of Parliament, effectively changing how a Selection Panel is constituted. Still, nothing has moved as more parties have returned to court contesting how the panel was constituted.

While at it, Banisa Counstituency has been without a representative at the National Assembly for 619 days. Notice that the Constitution allows a maximum of 90 days within which a by-election must be conducted.

On the last day of October this year, the High Court while hearing the Gachagua impeachment matter ruled that the Constitution “does not envision any scenario in which the office of the Deputy President would remain vacant, except during the brief period required to fill such a vacancy.”

I wonder what the High Court would say to the people of Banisa who for one year, ten months and 19 days have been without a representative.

Magarini Constituency has been without an MP for 189 days. Ugunja Constituency has been without an MP for 121 days.

The people of Banisa have no less a right than those of Balambala in Garissa. The people of Magarini have no less a right than those of Mathira.

The people of Nyansiongo Ward and Nyamaiya Ward, both in Nyamira County, deserve to have a new MCA. The people of Fafi ward in Garissa County, Mumbuni Ward in Machakos County, Kisa East Ward in Kakamega County.

The people of Angata Nanyokie Ward in Samburu, Narok Town Ward in Narok County, Chewani Ward in Tana River County - all these and more deserve a new MCA. Theirs is no less a right than the people of Chinga in Othaya.

In less than 20 days after notice of motion, a Deputy President was removed. In less than 20 days, 13 to be exact, the hurdles for a new DP to ascend to the office were removed.

We have normalized it. That when the political class wants a new Deputy President, IEBC is available to clear the way, or so we were made to understand. And it takes less than nine hours to do so. But when a constituency loses its Member of Parliament to the cruel hand of death, they can wait, indefinitely if they must. An action perhaps more cruel than the hand of death.

You see, the seat of MP or MCA is a seat that has no Assistant let alone Principal Assistant. There is not hierarchy of succession like is the case for the presidency. Perhaps the more reason why filling such a vacancy ought to be expedited. Failure to do so is to miss the essence of a Constitution. It makes no sense.