Parliament will start considering petitions seeking to kick out four commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) who rejected the August 9 presidential election results
House Speaker Moses Wetang’ula confirmed receiving four petitions against IEBC vice-chairperson Juliana Cherera and commissioners Irene Masit, Francis Wanderi and Justus Nyang’aya, over their conduct in the recently concluded General Election.
The four rejected the results saying they were arrived at by the electoral body chairman Wafula Chebukati in an opaque manner.
They also filed affidavits at the Supreme Court, distancing themselves from the results in the presidential election petition filed by Azimio la Umoja coalition, challenging President William Ruto’s win.
Article 251 of the Constitution states that Parliament will consider the petitions and if satisfied, the Speaker will send it to President Ruto to form a tribunal to investigate the commissioners.
If the tribunal is formed, the concerned commissioners will be suspended and paid half-salary, pending the conclusion of the inquiry. The President will have 30 days to act on the report after the tribunal makes its recommendation to him.
“The tribunal shall investigate the matter expeditiously, report on the facts and make a binding recommendation to the President, who shall act in accordance with the recommendation within 30 days,” Article 251 of the constitution states.
The first petition against the commissioners was filed by the Republican Party, which claims that the four failed to promote public confidence in the office they hold through their action of issuing a parallel presser to reject election results announced by Mr Chebukati.
The second petitioner, Rev Dennis Ndwiga, is seeking the removal of the four on the allegations of gross misconduct and incompetence.
Geoffrey Langat and Jerry Owuor, who are the third and fourth petitioners respectively, cite gross violation of the Constitution, gross misconduct and incompetence as grounds for the removal of the four embattled commissioners.
Mr Wetang’ula yesterday directed the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee to look into the petitions and guide the House within 14 days on whether they satisfy grounds for removal of any or all the four commissioners.
kmwangi@ke.nationmedia.com
"The four petitions now stand committed to the departmental committee on Justice and Legal Affairs for consideration. The work of the committee is to guide the house by way of comprehensive report on whether the petitions satisfy the grounds of removal of any or all of the cited members of a constitutional commission as set out in clauses 1 and 2 of article 251 of the constitution," said Wetang’ula.
The Speaker further instructed the committee to offer the affected commissioners an opportunity to respond to the petitions either in writing or orally.
The four commissioners were appointed in September last year to replace commissioners Consolata Nkatha, Margaret Mwachanya, Paul Kurgat and Roselyn Akombe who resigned after the 2017 polls which were marred by the nullification of the Presidential election outcome by the Supreme Court.
Outlined in law, the process of removal of a constitutional commissioner starts the moment the petition has been received by the National Assembly Clerk, and stamped as received by the assembly’s Main Records Unit.
The next step will be for a motion to be mentioned and debated before the National Assembly. In this case, the debate will only take place after an advisory opinion is issued by JLAC.
During the determination of the petition, the simple majority number of MPs is required to move the petition to the President.
Upon receiving the petition from the Parliament, the President will either suspend the commissioner(s) being questioned pending the outcome of the complaint, or appoint a tribunal that will probe the member.
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