NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 12 – The Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Leader Raila Odinga has demanded President William Ruto to halt the recruitment of IEBC commissioner.
During the Azimio Rallies in Likoni, Mombasa County, he said that the process should be revoked and the selection panel reconstituted with representatives drawn from political parties.
“We want the poll body IEBC not to be controlled by President William Ruto alone. Kenya Kwanza to sit together with Azimio to select the IEBC commissioners,” said Odinga.
Odinga has threatened to stage demonstrations across the country from March 20 to halt the ongoing recruitment of the IEBC commissioners.
The Azimio Coalition has distanced itself from the process of recruitment of the IEBC commissioners saying it is an attempt by President Ruto to constitute an electoral commission that will favor his re-election bid in 2027.
The opposition leader seemingly pushing a bipartisan effort similar to what we saw in 1997 with the Inter-Party Parliamentary Group (IPPG).
President William Ruto however rubbished the demands by the Opposition Coalition to halt the ongoing recruitment of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioners.
President Ruto advised his archrival Raila Odinga to push for amendments in the IEBC Act if he wants to stop the reconstitution of the poll body saying he won’t allow impunity in the country.
“Those who are telling me to stop following the law and the Constitution and follow their personal requests that are not in the law. I want to tell them that I won’t do it, I am sorry,” Ruto said.
“If we do that we will be promoting Impunity in the country of Kenya,” he said during a thanksgiving service in Tharaka Nithi County.
President Ruto affirmed that he will promote the law in his administration urging those who are irked by the recruitment of the IEBC commissioners to seek recourse in the law through amendments.
The President reiterated that no one is above the law and therefore Odinga cannot issue demands through word of mouth and expect the same to be headed yet the nation is guided by the principles of the law.
“Those who have an issue with any part of the law, amend that part. Once it is amended we will all follow but as it is we will follow the Constitution as it is,” he said.
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance Leader who toured the county for the first time since he ascended to power maintained that the ongoing process of recruitment of poll body commissioners is well within the law.
President Ruto defended that the recruitment of the selection panel abided by the law as the five institutions that are required to submit names of their nominees to the IEBC panel is guided by the IEBC Act.
He dispelled the notion by the Azimio Coalition that the process is a unilateral process undertaken by the Kenya Kwanza administration.
“I only gazetted the selection panel that will undertake the process of selecting IEBC commissioners. I have no preferred person that I have recommended because the constitution does not allow the President the opportunity to appoint anyone,”
