Nairobi — National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula has disclosed that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) selection panel members will be gazetted by Tuesday next week.
Starting next week, the ball will be set rolling for the recruiting of new IEBC commissioners for the poll body which has been vacant for more than a year with the youthful generation commonly known as GenZ pushing for its reconstitution.
The selection panel will include 2 persons nominated by the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC); one representing the majority party and another from the minority party.
It will also have three persons nominated by the Political Parties Liason Committee; one not from a parliamentary party.
It will also include one person nominated by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and one nominated by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya. Two other persons will be nominated by the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya.
"The nominating agencies of the selection panel are Parliamentary Service Commission. That's ourselves. We've already organized. We are going to conduct interviews for the nominated candidates by the majority and minority parties. On Friday this week," Wetangula said.
The National Assembly Speaker detailed that by the end of the week the nominating bodies will have submitted their selection to the panel.
"So we hope that by the close of the week, we should have the selection panel list ready to be sent to the President to appoint a chairman out of them and gazzete them not later than Tuesday next week to start their work,"Speaker Wetangula said.
The commission was left vacant after Former IEBC Commissioner Wafula Chebukati and commissioners Boya Mulu and Abdi Guliye completed their six year non-renewable contract.
The Cherera Four--Juliana Cherera, Francis Wandera, Irene Masit, and Justus Nyang'aya--who disputed the 2022 presidential election results announced by Chebukati exited the commission before their term was completed.
The IEBC selection panel shall be in office for a period of 90 days upon which it will recruit and submit to the president names of the nominees for appointment.
Both the National Assembly and the Senate may, however, pass a resolution to extend its term.
Within seven days of its appointment, it will invite applications from qualified persons and publish the names of all applicants and their qualifications in the Gazette, two newspapers of national circulation and on the PSC website.
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It will then consider the applications, shortlist and interview the applicants.
The applicants are to be done in public.
Upon completion of the interviews, the panel shall select two persons qualified to be appointed chairperson and nine persons qualified to be appointed as members of the Commission and forward it to the President.
The President shall, within seven days of receipt of the approved names by the National Assembly, by notice in the Gazette, appoint the Chairperson and the members of the Commission.
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