Opposition leaders threaten to challenge IEBC reconstitution
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagu’s allied opposition has threatened to take legal and political action if President William Ruto appoints electoral commissioners without consulting them.
The Kenyan opposition is obsessed with this stupid idea that President William Ruto should consult them before the new IEBC is appointed otherwise they w ill take the matter to court to stop the appointments. Basic common sense would tell anybody that it is the IEBC Panel that appoints the IEBC commissioners including the IEBC chairperson.
The appointment is not supposed to be done by the president or the politicians. The political leaders chose the IEBC Panel and that is the end of their involvement there and now it is case closed for them.
So here is the news as of right now. The long awaited process of Independence Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) reconstitution is likely to face another hurdle after opposition leaders threaten to challenge the chairperson appointment in court if they are not fully consulted.
The opposition says the process of appointing the IEBC boss must reflect the principle of consultation and concurrence and they are eagerly waiting for the president to involve them in the final list before gazettement of the name.
The Nelson Makanda-led selection panel is currently interviewing candidates for the commissioner’ s positions.
Led by Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper Party), Martha Karua (PLP) and Eugene Wamalwa (DAP-K), the opposition luminaries warned that president William Ruto could be warming up to rig the next general elections since some of his allies are being interviewed for the post of commissioners.
In the press briefing, the opposition leaders raised concern with some candidates who are shortlisted by the selection panel citing integrity and conflict of interest concerns.
The nomination of the IEBC selection panel had for a long time stalled after a dispute between Azimio’s Augustus Muli and Koki Muli.
Here is the one thing these so called opposition leaders do not get in their heads. Stopping IEBC from taking office would be the best thing anybody can do to President William Ruto.
That case can go on for months all the way to the Supreme Court in 2027 which means the IEBC will not be doing anything. For President Ruto that means he does not have to worry about voter registration which is the greatest threat to his government.
President William Ruto is terrified of those millions of young Kenyans who can’t stand him being registered as voters and if Kalonzo and others can stop that until 2027 William Ruto would even pay them money to do that.
William Ruto is not going to call Kalonzo Musyoka and Martha Karua to pick up the IEBC commissioners and if the opposition want to stop the whole process in court, William Ruto would be jumping with joy and that matter can be in the courts until 2027 and there would no new voters in Kenya by the time of the next General Election.
That is wonderful for this Kenyan opposition. Isn’t it? Talk about dumb and dumber.
The opposition right now should be pushing for the IEBC to be set up real quick. Once it is set up IEBC needs a budget that is going to be in billions. That has to be done. Then IEBC will carry out out the pending by-elections all over the country.
Once that is done all Kenyans and the opposition in particular must insist that voter registration is done in the next two years continuously so that all Kenyans who want to vote are registered to vote.
That should be the agenda of the opposition and forget the other nonsense. Voter Registration should be the biggest agenda of the Kenya opposition groups and they can take a break from those meetings at SERENA hotel. There are no Kenyan voters there.
This is William Ruto in Laikipia on April 1, 2025. Even he wants those Kenyans to register as voters in 2027. And so should be the Kenyan opposition parties.
The President later visited Nanyuki town where he interacted with residents and launched development projects. Even William Ruto would want these Kenyans registered to vote.
He inspected the Sh350 million Nanyuki Modern Market, toured the Nanyuki Affordable Housing Project
President William Ruto interacts with Nanyuki town residents on April 1, 2025.
The President also laid the foundation stone for the construction of 10 classrooms at Nanyuki D.E.B. Primary and Junior Secondary School.
