The national electoral agency announced Monday that it has significant hurdles ahead of next year’s General Election.
Inadequate budgetary allocations, limited schedules, and many legal barriers were identified by the Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission (IEBC) as major impediments to monitoring a credible, free, and fair general election.
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati and acting chief executive Hussein Marjan testified before the Senate committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights yesterday, saying the commission needs Sh2.7 billion to settle its pending invoices as of June 30, 2019.
“The commission, therefore, appeals to Parliament and National Treasury to provide funds for electoral activities throughout the electoral cycle,” Chebukati recommended.
The commission plans to pay Sh1.6 billion to legal companies and Sh1.03 billion to ICT service providers out of the total.
The Marjan echoed his comments, claiming that the commission was suffocated by pending invoices, with some vendors slamming them while others threatened to shut off their services.
Nyamira Senator Okong’o Omogeni, the committee’s chairman, said it was unjust for the commission to refuse to pay for services provided by outside firms.
Chebukati has ruled out the formation of additional constituencies before the elections next year, stating that the border delimitation process will not be concluded until March 2023.
“Due to the complexity of the delimitation process as well as the fact that the commission will be conducting a general election in 2022, our position is that the final year by which the review of electoral boundaries should have been completed is March, 2023,” he said.
Marjan echoed Chebukati’s thoughts, claiming that the commission was juggling two competing priorities: the preparation for the 2022 General Election and the boundary delimitation procedure.
Budgetary restrictions, however, have prevented the commission from completing institutional reforms that would allow for successful elections in 2022, according to the chairman.
The IEBC chairman claimed that the commission had requested at least Sh40 billion for election preparations, but that their budget had been cut to Sh33 billion, leaving a Sh7 billion imbalance.
