Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is grappling with financial shortfalls and logistical hurdles as it prepares for 24 by-elections scheduled for November 2025.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee this week, the commission’s top brass acknowledged that eight of the races remain in doubt because of a 238 million shilling budget gap.
Sixteen by-elections are already funded, at a cost of 788 million shillings, but the total requirement stands at more than one billion.
The hearings exposed the uneasy balance the commission is trying to strike between operational readiness and public trust.
Erastus Edung Ethekon, who took over as chair this year, projected confidence but admitted the funding delays had slowed preparations.
“We are engaging the National Treasury to unlock resources urgently,” he told lawmakers, while defending the commission’s decision to set November 27 as the polling date.
The commission’s challenges extend beyond finances. Procurement has stalled under the government’s electronic tendering system, which officials said required retraining of staff.
Without ballot materials in hand, officials insisted they could still move quickly once funds are released.
The political stakes are high. Banissa Constituency, in northern Kenya, has gone without representation for more than two years, fuelling anger among residents.
In Parliament, legislators warned that any failure to deliver credible by-elections could deepen distrust in an institution already under scrutiny after the disputed 2022 presidential election.
Lawmakers from marginalized constituencies pressed the commission on boundary reviews, citing the burden of administering vast regions with little representation.
“Election violence can plunge this country into chaos,” said Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo. “These by-elections must demonstrate that political violence can be contained.”
Ethekon agreed that credibility depended on more than logistics. He urged restraint from politicians and the media, saying the commission could not alone guarantee peace. “It requires the collective will of society,” he said.
For now, the commission has promised to resume continuous voter registration this month, aiming to add 6.3 million names to the rolls.
