Uhuru picks panel to recruit IEBC commissioners

A seven-member team has been set up to constitute the selection panel that will steer recruitment of four commissioners of Kenya’s electoral watchdog.

In an April 26 gazette notice, President Uhuru Kenyatta nominated the selection panel that will manage the filling up of four vacant positions at the the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

The President’s move comes after he received four nominees from the Parliamentary Service Commission, one from the Law Society of Kenya and two from the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya to set up the team that will interview applicants for the current four vacant commissioner posts.

The members to the committee are Dr Elizabeth Muli, Gideon Solonka, James Achoka, Elizabeth Meyo as proposed by the Parliamentary Service Commission.

Read also: Uhuru sets the stage for recruitment of four IEBC chiefs

Others are Reverend Father Joseph Ngumbi and Dr Suleiman Abdalla. The pair was proposed by the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya while the Law Society of Kenya nominee is Ms Dorothy Jemator.

Mr Kenyatta declared four vacancies at the agency on April 14.

The IEBC was left with three commissioners after four of their colleagues resigned in a huff following the disputed 2017 presidential polls.

Those who quit were the vice-chairperson Consolata Nkatha, Margaret Mwachanya, Paul Kurgat and Roselyne Akombe.

Their exit left Kenya’s electoral agency with just three commissioners to conduct business to date

The three commissioners, who have been shepherding the agency are chairman Wafula Chebukati and commissioners Boya Mulu and Abdi Guliye.

The IEBC has also been running without a substantive chief executive since the ouster of Ezra Chiloba in 2018 after an internal audit found him culpable on questionable procurement deals during the 2017 polls.

Mr Chiloba has since been appointment into the board of the Youth Fund.