Proposed staff changes threaten to split IEBC

The electoral commission is staring at an imminent disagreement between the secretariat and the commissioners over proposed staff transfers just three months to the August 8 General Election.

At the center of the simmering row has been the proposed staff changes and movements that the CEO Ezra Chiloba had developed “with the aim of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in our operations”, which has now been suspended over claims of interference by a section of the commissioners.

Even though Mr Chiloba had prepared a list of the staff and their new stations as per the criteria developed by the commission plenary, the commission has since disowned the list.

RETURNING OFFICERS

In the proposal, 47 constituency election managers and 290 constituency election officers were to be to be redeployed by May 4.

These are the people who will later be gazetted as returning officers for county and constituency elections respectively.

“The decision is in line with the common understanding that before the elections, all CECs (constituency election coordinators) were to be moved to new stations to serve as returning officers,” Mr Chiloba’s letter on the staff changes and movements of April 27 reads in part.

Reached for comment Mr Chiloba said: “The commission has its timelines that must be observed. This includes gazetting the retuning officers and their deployment.

"The final decision on the deployment will be made public through a gazette notice as required by law. 

"The law is also clear on the relationship between the commission and secretariat. Everything that is to be done is being done to ensure we have a free and fair election.

"The commission understands fully well what the law states in regards to the role and relationship between commission and secretariat, and we are consistently following that definition."

TRANSFERS CANCELLED
Staff members who have been training on Kenya Integrated Elections Management System at a Nairobi hotel in readiness for the verification of the voter register that starts on May 10 were on Friday treated to the bits of the simmering boardroom turf wars, which is now threatening the conduct of elections in three months.

At the meeting, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati contradicted Mr Chiloba before the staff, many of whom were to be affected by the proposed movements and transfers.

Mr Chebukati and Mr Chiloba had gone to the hotel where at least 400 election staff have been training.

The commission staff said that after Mr Chiloba had addressed them on the proposals, Mr Chebukati openly differed with the CEO.

“We agreed that all transfers should have a human face and should be done at the plenary. Do these transfers have a human face?” Mr Chebukati reportedly said. “I am therefore cancelling all the transfers.”

INTERFERENCE
He informed the staff that the commission will prepare a new report.

Secretariat staff who spoke to the Sunday Nation allege that the commissioners have been encroaching into the secretariat’s turf by attempting to make managerial and administrative decisions, contrary to the IEBC

Act that limits the commissioners’ role to policy formulation.