NASA principals Moses Wetangula, Kalonzo Musyoka and Raila Odinga at the Supreme Court. [Photo/ The Star]
During the ruling to nullify the presidential election results, the Supreme Court judges identified gaps and wrongs in law that needed to be addressed by the legislative arm of government. Chief Justice David Maraga, while reading the decision of the majority, called on members of parliament to urgently enact laws that will improve management of elections in Kenya. The Jubilee MPs, despite disagreeing with the ruling, have heeded the judges’ call and have now come up with an election amendments Bill that fixes the specific challenges we are facing today. NASA-allied lawmakers, who claim they want to help make reforms so that elections are free and fair, are opposing the amendments when they have a chance to make their arguments and persuade the Jubilee MPs to their side. One of the issues that the Bill addresses is what led to the nullification of the election results. And that is election figures transmitted electronically differing with those tallied manually. Under the proposed law, if there is a discrepancy between the manual and electronically transmitted results, the manual shall prevail.At the moment, the IEBC vice chairman cannot automatically become chairman in the absence of Wafula Chebukati. And that puts the country in an awkward situation. What happens if Chebukati resigns now, when the president doesn’t make new appointments? The Bill provides that the vice-chairman, who doesn’t need to have a background in law, can assume the roles of the chairman.In the past few days, Raila Odinga, the NASA presidential candidate, has threatened to not to participate in the October 26 repeat elections. The law is not very clear on what can happen. But the Bill that is on the floor of the National Assembly addresses all with clarity. Another issue that the Supreme Court judges cited when nullifying the election results was the unsigned forms by election officials. The proposed law makes it a criminal offence for election officers not to sign the forms. Mr Chekubaki, the IEBC chairman, was accused by NASA of announcing the final result of the presidential election before receiving all forms to tally the results manually. The Bill now requires him to announce the winner of the election only after all forms are available. In case a presidential election result is nullified by the court, IEBC is now required to publish a notice, within seven days, showing that no candidate was elected, announce a new date for the repeat election and make known the names of those who will take part in the fresh election. The Bill addresses virtually all the wrongs that led to the nullification of the election results and addresses virtually all the issues that took Raila Odinga to court. The NASA coalition should back these election amendments so that we have free and fair elections in future.