Integrity queries haunt some aspirants The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) threw clearance of some aspirants into uncertainty. The Commission said that those with pending integrity issues may be barred from contesting. The commissioning was attempting to enforce Chapter Six of the Constitution.
IEBC also ordered aspirants who were aggrieved during nominations to file their cases with the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal. IEBC Election Preparedness Official campaign period started on 1st June. On this day IEBC announced it’s ready for elections as it received the first consignment of 10,080 Kenya Integrated Elections Management Systems (Kiems) kits out of the expected 35000.
The polls body claimed that it has learnt lessons from the 2013 general election and that they won’t repeat similar mistakes. The commission will employ backups to remedy the challenges that may occur. IEBC shall be under a thorough scrutiny after the AU landed in the country for an election’s conference. To mitigate massive systems failure IEBC bought machines at least 90 days to elections, trained staff and tested about 10,000 of the kits that will be used in the polls. The kits were deployed in the voter verification period. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission also said that dead and fake voters will not participate in the General Election as voter verification will be done via biometric details.
Meanwhile, MPs postponed the approval of the IEBC’s supplementary budget worth the Sh48.6 billion. This was triggered by concerns about an allocation of Sh2.5 billion to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and Sh300 million to the National Intelligence Service. There were fears that treasury could be double allocating to IEBC.
Ballot Papers printing dispute IEBC dismissed the possibility of cancelling the ballot papers printing tender given to Al Ghurair. The tender has become an issue of contestation after NASA contested the suitability of the printing firm. NASA claims that Al Ghurair has links with President Kenyatta. The electoral agency warned that a threat by the opposition to block the printing of ballot papers has the possibility of shifting the election date set for August 8.
Parties to submit special seats list Political Parties taking part in the next election were supposed to submit their nomination lists by 24th June failure to which they would not be considered in the allocation of the special seats in the Senate, National Assembly or the 47 county assemblies. The National Assembly has 12 special seats, the Senate 20, and the number of nominated MCAs stands at 774. The National Assembly party lists must include nominees to represent the youth, the disabled, workers and other special interests groups. The Senate women party list must have 16 names and parties must ensure that no more than two nominees come from the same county. Vote tallying at the constituency level is final The court ruled that the Electoral Commission cannot alter the presidential election results announced by its returning officers in constituencies. Five Court of Appeal judges today ruled that the results announced by each of the 290 returning officers are final and all that will be done at the National Tallying Centre is addition of the results announced at the constituencies.
Opposition raises voter register audit concerns & potential rigging using the military The National Super Alliance (NASA) demanded a fresh audit of the voters register. The Alliance wanted the register to be checked against that the latest information on the Kenyan population. Salim Lone an advisor to the NASA flagbearer said the current register is flawed. NASA through Lone expressed their doubts on the ability of the IEBC to conduct a free and fair election. NASA further demanded for a mock election to avert a mass systems failure. In a rejoinder, the polls dismissed the claims of a flawed register as misleading.
NASA Presidential candidate Raila Odinga dragged the military into a fresh election rigging claim. Odinga claimed the Kenya Defence Forces, National Police Service, regional coordinators and county commanders have been mobilised and are being trained at Nairobi’s Embakasi Barracks to help tilt the elections outcome in favour of the Jubilee Party. In a rejoinder, Deputy President told the opposition to stop engaging in ‘unnecessary noise.’
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