Independent Electoral and Boundaries and Commission (IEBC) chairman Ahmed Isaak Hassan has said that Kenya needs to split elections to reduce the bulk and increase the credibility of the results.
Speaking at JKL Show at KTN on Wednesday night, Hassan said IEBC experienced a heavy work load in the last general election conducting six elections in one day.
"We are the second electoral body in the region to conduct high number of elections after South Sudan which conducts nine elections but in seven days. IEBC is expected to conduct six elections in thirteen hours 5am to 6pm," said Hassan.
He asked MPs to consider splitting the elections into two, for the national and county levels.
"We need a situation where we conduct elections for the president and MPs and then for the county governor, senators, MCAs and women reps. This way we will have efficiency and utmost transparency," added the Chair.
He said that they are always forced to employ more staff to assist in the electoral process.
"We have 290 returning officers, 47 county representatives and more than 300 000 surportin staff who assist in vote tallying. We are faced with a lot of work load which needs to be reduced," said Hassan.
He said the commission has been allocated sh19 billion to prepare for the next general election which he said will be used to print the ballot papers, registering new votes and training the electoral personnel.
The next general election is expected to be conducted in August 8 2017. A special joint parliamentary committee has been formed to determine the suitability of the current commissioners to oversee the next election where many have been claimed unfit to hold office.