National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale at Jubilee Party
headquarters in Nairobi on December 18, 2016. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale on Sunday told off
those questioning the nomination of Wafula Chebukati as IEBC chairman.
Mr
Duale, also the Garissa Township MP, at the same time lashed out at
those raising concerns that Mr Chebukati and IEBC chief executive Ezra
Chiloba are from the same community.
Addressing the
media in Garissa Town, Mr Duale said the Constitution doesn’t
discriminate against any Kenyan on the basis of where they come from,
adding that both the CEO and Mr Chebukati were nominated in a fair
process.
“CEO Chiloba applied for the job and was
recruited in a very fair, transparent, competitive and vigorous process
and so is the current nominee for IEBC chair.
'ETHNIC POLITICS'
"Those
now raising concerns on where they come from are the ones who believe
in ethnic politics. Ours is by merit and not where one comes from,” said
the Jubilee MP.
Mr Duale said once the Speaker of the National Assembly receives
the names from the President next week, he will submit them to the
Justice and Legal Affairs Committee for vetting and approval.
Meanwhile,
two ODM lawmakers on Sunday said there was a need to explore avenues
for an electronic backup as opposed to a manual system in the General
Election to ensure the 2017 polls are credible.
Bondo
MP Gideon Ochanda and his Nyakach counterpart Aduma Owuor said Jubilee
MPs' move to alter election laws was ill-intended and meant to rig the
coming elections.
Speaking during a funeral in Nyando,
Kisumu County, Mr Ochanda said the election system should emulate the
backup used by banks “and not manual, which is likely to be
manipulated”.
IDENTIFY VOTERS MANUALLY
Mr Owuor said the manner in which the amendments were approved was illegal as it ought to have first gone through the Senate.
“We
hope Jubilee will listen to the demands by [the] majority of Kenyans
and ensure the changes are amended as they are a recipe for chaos in
this country,” he said.
He said it was wrong to identify voters manually as that would provide room for "dead" voters to cast their votes.
“The manual details could be generated from electronic data to avoid rigging,” Mr Ochanda said.
He
accused Jubilee of having bad intentions with the coming elections,
saying that is why the majority in Parliament rushed to amend election
laws.
'MATURE' SENATE DEBATE
The
Bill passed by Jubilee MPs last year reinstated the provisions for
manual identification of voters in case the electronic system fails.
The House also adopted a proposal for manual transmission of results, which the opposition has vehemently opposed.
The
Senate Legal Affairs Committee is racing against time to take the views
of as many stakeholders as it can before the January 4 deadline to hand
over its report to the Senate over the changes made to the Election Law
(Amendment) Bill.
On Tuesday, the committee is
expected to meet with the Attorney-General, the Council of Governors,
and the Coalition for Credible Polls 2017, the Media Owners Association,
the Civil Society Reference Group, and the Computer Society of Kenya.
The Senate's role in debating the Bill has been lauded as mature and sober as a result of meticulous prior planning.
Following the acrimonious session in the National Assembly, senators decided to take the high road and rewrite the script.
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