CIC Chairman correct to call for referendum on extension of Parliamentary, Presidential and IEBC terms

CIC Chairman correct to call for referendum on extension of Parliamentary, Presidential and IEBC terms

BY MUSYOKA NGUI

A

ny attempt to carry out a constitutional amendment requires the input of Kenyans. It is the 42 million Kenyans who have sovereign right to determine their individual and collective destinies. Thus in a democracy, they may donate that representative role to the National Assembly but the Parliament should be seen to act in the interests of voters not their own personal and selfish interests.

Nothing exemplifies the conflict between the public and the person of our elected leaders than the draft bill to extend the term of the IEBC and move the general election date from the August to December of the fifth year after the government has been elected.

Clearly, the MPs would relish four whole extra month of undeserved salary and attendant perks if their terms are extended. Wanjiku should stop this from happening because it will be done at the expense of the taxpayer’s money.

CIC Chairman Charles Nyachae rightly opined that this is not a matter of the MPs sitting and deciding when they want their term to end or begin. It amounts to both conflict of interest and unwarranted wastage of public resources.

Cord has found itself blowing hot and cold since it wants to extend the term of parliament but not that of the IEBC which it has consistently claimed rigged the elections and called for the removal of its commissioners. On the other hand, Jubilee wants the IEBC to remain in office until their six year term ends and even long enough to oversee the next elections and beyond.

Both sides of the political divide are advancing their political agenda at the expense of Kenyans. The Constitution is clear that the elections should be conducted on Tuesday of second week of August not December every fifth year. It also categorical in Article 250 of the Supreme Law that the IEBC commissioners are supposed to serve a single and non renewable term of six years which unfortunately expires on November 9, three months after August 2017, the constitutionally scheduled date for the next General Elections.

The bill by ODM MP David Ochieng (Ugenya) to change the election date from second Tuesday of August to second Monday of December is likely to throw the country into a constitutional crisis. I believe it is not true that holding elections in August will lead to interference with the budget process, the school calendar or the national exams neither will it lead to low voter turnout since August is a holiday month just as December. Further, if one intents to vote they will anyway. The opposite is true, when there is voter apathy, voters won’t register or turn out to vote regardless of the election month. They will always have excuses like the ones above. Holiday tuition was abolished so the classrooms will be empty and neither learning processes nor exams will be interfered with by the elections like the politicians would want us to believe. We are more intelligent.

The writer is a blogger at musyokangui.blogspot.com and a Fourth Year Communication and Media student at Chuka University.