Chebukati led team is now almost being sidelined for the lack of sufficient Public confidence.
Senators, Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) and the private sector have cautioned the electoral agency risks losing public confidence if it goes ahead to carry out the exercise before redeeming its already tainted confidence levels.
The polls team has lined up Sh8 billion for a second review of constituency and ward boundaries in yet another delicate and highly polarising exercise against the backdrop of competing interests of individual politicians and political parties.
Although IEBC is constitutionally mandated to conduct boundaries review, delegates at the fourth annual Devolution Legislative Summit in Kisumu said the Wafula Chebukati-led commission is yet to clear the ghosts of a highly contested 2017 presidential polls.
“We are worried. How are we going to be sure you will deliver a clean boundaries review, when it is clear some of the electoral materials were misused during the last elections?” John Okoth, Siaya County MCA kicked off the debate, insisting that Kenyans must be told the sanctity of the boundary view.
Bomet Senator Christopher Langat said Kenyans’ confidence in the ability of IEBC to manage the boundaries delimitation had diminished significantly especially after the perceived bungled August 8 polls. “You know in this country perception is a great deal. Would IEBC consider hiring a private consultant to do boundaries delimitation to avoid an impending backlash from the public?” Langat asked IEBC legal officer Chris Owiye.
Owiye, who represented his Chebukati had a difficult time assuring the audience on the safeguards the commission had put in place to deliver a clean boundaries review.
Chebukati had been scheduled to address the summit on the evaluation of the existing criteria for delimitation of boundaries based on previous experience of the polls team and the action plan on the boundary review and resolution of the boundary dispute.
But when he rose to answer the questions, Owiye said the commission will be guided by Article 89 of the Constitution and it shall involve all stakeholders.
“We will be guided by law and the Constitution dictates, we will look at the five parameters; population from the census, geographical mass, historical ties, cultural and economic links,” he said.
He said the law prescribes that the electoral body retains the 290 constituencies but can realign the boundaries.
However, the concerns raised by the delegates at the summit appears to be alive to Chebukati as he prepares to conduct, once more, a protracted and divisive exercise.
In a memo to Parliament’s Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee, the IEBC boss appears alive to the fact that the exercise is political in nature as it defines the geographical areas for rulers and their subjects, access, and distribution of economic benefits.