IEBC faces Sh506m bill from lawyers in election petitions

A woman casts her ballot during the March 4 General Election. Lawyers representing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in poll petitions are expected to earn Sh506 million. FILE 

In Summary

• IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan said while defending the body’s budget for the next financial year that it owed suppliers Sh4 billion in pending bills.
• He said with a budget deficit of Sh2.59 billion, the commission would face difficulties in financing its activities and meeting legal obligations.
• The commission sought Sh6.6 billion for the coming financial year but was only allocated Sh4.01 billion.

Lawyers representing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in poll petitions are expected to earn Sh506 million.

IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan said while defending the body’s budget for the next financial year that it owed suppliers Sh4 billion in pending bills.

“There are 187 petitions filed against the commission and it is anticipated that legal fees would be Sh506 million considering all the costs associated with the cases,” Mr Hassan said.

He said with a budget deficit of Sh2.59 billion, the commission would face difficulties in financing its activities and meeting legal obligations.

Appearing before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee to push for additional funding, Mr Hassan said the commission sought Sh6.6 billion for the coming financial year but was only allocated Sh4.01 billion.

He said the commission faced a Sh390 million bill arising from delimitation of constituency boundaries.

He told the committee chaired by Samuel Chepkonga that the team would require Sh150 million to secure, insure, service and license the 15,000 Biometric Voter Registration kits and 33,000 Electronic Voter Identification devices.

The equipment, which was purchased at a cost of Sh6.8 billion largely failed during the March 4 General Election.

“The commission requests for Sh150 million for insurance premium for the BVR ad EVID kits,” said Mr Hassan.

He defended the purchase of the equipment saying it could be reused in future elections, adding that it would have been cheaper in the long run to hire the equipment from foreign firms but the decision to purchase them was made by the Executive through the Treasury.

“I am certainly sure that the cost of procuring the machines may be higher than the Sh6.8 billion. This is outside the commission,” Mr Hassan said.

He asked the committee to help it secure more funding, saying Sh50 million is required for continuous voter education and Sh22 million for Service Level Agreement (SLA) which would ensure investments in electronic voter registration and identification devices were not in vain.

A further Sh50 million is needed for setting up a GIS lab for data analysis and one stop shop for geospatial data for boundaries delimitation in Kenya.

The commission also says it needs Sh20 million for its ICT data centre, Sh107 million for purchase of 92 motor vehicles for constituencies work, and Sh335 million to meet deficit in operations and maintenance expenses.

MPs questioned the commission’s requirement for a Sh450 million revolving mortgage scheme, Sh100 million for car loans scheme and Sh800 million for purchase of commision office block/headquarters.


The electoral body said it spends Sh48.7 million currently for its leased offices in Anniversary Towers.

IEBC chief executive James Oswago said money for by-elections, including that for the forthcoming Makueni Senate seat had not been provided.

“We have put a request for funding of the by-election. Delays in releasing the money to the commission has an effect of delaying aspects of the electoral process,” Mr Oswago added.

The commission was allocated Sh24 billion for the March 4 poll in the current financial year. The poll body said although its activities had been scaled down, it needed to settle pending bills.