Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition has vowed not to participate in the selection of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) staff.
The coalition leader Raila Odinga has accused the Kenya Kwanza administration of seeking to single-handedly pick the electoral agency commissioners.
His accusation follows the allocation of two slots of IEBC nominees to the Parliamentary Service Commission and one slot to the Public Service Commission, where he implies that it will give the president an unfair advantage because of the PSC’s position in the Executive.
According to the IEBC (Amendment) Bill, the composition of the selection panel which will recruit the new commissioners will comprise of one man and one woman from the Parliamentary Service Commission.
Two people will come from the Inter-Religious Council, Public Service Commission, Political Parties Liaison Committee, and the Law Society of Kenya to each nominate one person to the panel.
The Political Parties Liaison Committee which consists of more than 80 political parties settled on Chairman James Misati of the Progressive Party of Kenya.
The Law Society of Kenya has nominated Benson Ngugi Njeri, an advocate from Igeria and Ngugi advocates, while the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya has picked Rev Nelson Makanda, the General Secretary of the Evangelical Society of Kenya, and Fatuma Saman of the National Muslim Leaders Forum.
The Public Service Commission and the Parliamentary Service Commission are yet to name their nominees.
The aforementioned institutions are expected to forward the names of their respective nominees on Tuesday 21, 2023.
The new IEBC Commissioners to be recruited will take over from former Chairman Wafula Chebukati, commissioners, Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye whose 6-year term of office lapsed, as well as former Vice Chair Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, and Justus Nyang’aya who resigned to avoid facing a tribunal probing which is still ongoing.