It is sad that things have gone haywire and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is under siege.
It is now clear that in fifteen years, Kenya is going to have four different compositions of Electoral body’s commissioners.
The late Samuel Kivuitu was at the helm of the now defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) which supervised the chaotic general elections of 2007.
With allegations of rigging renting the air, Kenya found itself on the verge of collapsing during the Post-Election Violence (PEV).
Going into details will freshen the wounds within me, as I was also a victim of the PEV.
That aside.
2013 general election came when we had a new Electoral body and commissioners in place, being led by Isaac Hassan.
Hassan resigned after much pressure from the opposition, after the latter alleged rigging in the elections.
Chebukati and Company took us through 2017 general elections – twice – due to the nullification of the Presidential elections by the Supreme Court.
When Roseline Akombe resigned, few weeks before the repeat of the elections, things were unchanged since the number of commissioners in office could handle anything, if not everything.
IEBC’s vice chair Consolata Nkatha has led a team of three into resigning, including Paul Kurgat, Margaret Mwachanya and herself. Even if the chair, Mr. Chebukati says he will not resign, he has no otherwise. From where I sit, Chebukati has only one option; to quit.
Quitting for Chebukati will not delay until February 2022, but will happen soon.
Chebukati has led a team into failing Kenyans.
When he took over, Kenyans had hope.
IEBC boasted of a great team of intellectuals who would run the commission without any problem, but when the problems began by the death of ICT guru Chris Msando immediately before elections, not even a prophet of doom dared say that IEBC was headed the wrong way.
It is evident that we are going to have new IEBC Commissioners in the next general elections, and without fear of contradiction, Chebukati will not be the chair.
2007-2022, only fifteen years yet we would have four different teams leading the electoral commission.
This is a disaster the country is brewing. AT this rate, the country will never achieve Electoral justice and transparency.
We should not have different teams running each general election. We need to get a qualified, clean team, build trust and let it run the commission.
It is heartbreaking that we should be having problems; people dying and families losing loved ones every five years because of elections that would have otherwise been peaceful if we had the correct team in place.