Botswana ’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is in Nairobi for a three-day benchmarking tour at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Members of the Botswana IEC will seek to understand more on the IEBC runs electoral processes in Kenya as the commission in readiness for a General Election in 2024.
IEBC said a 9-member delegation led by two IEC commissions will discuss areas of possible collaboration in the electoral process as they scale up preparations for 2024.
“The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of Botswana have paid a courtesy call to the Commission to discuss areas of possible collaboration in the electoral process as they scale up their preparation for the 2024 General Elections,” IEBC stated on Wednesday.
IEBC said IEC is also keen to learn how it conducted registration of voters, strategies used for confirming voter identity, eligibility and quality assurance measures put in place for voter information, verification of the Register of Voters and validation.
“IEBC Kenya took Botswana delegation through the security measures taken for voters’ data protection and management of the voter’s roll, the voting process, results transmission system (RTS) and management of the public portal that hosted all the 46,229 Form 34A,” IEBC stated.
IEC’s visit, a vote of confidence in IEBC, comes at a time Azimio leader Raila Odinga has sustained attacks at the electoral commission.
Odinga’s ultimatum
Odinga who has refused to acknowledge President William Ruto despite Supreme Court’s affirmation of the presidential election has termed Ruto’s victory as illegitimate.
On Wednesday, he issued a issued a 14-day ultimatum for the President Ruto administration to the recruitment of new IEBC commissioners threatening mass action.
The recruitment of the panel followed the declaration of seven vacancies in the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
The slots became vacant after the tenure of three commissioners — Wafula Chebukati (Chairperson), Boya Molu and Yakub Guliye — came to and end.
Three others — Juliana Cherera (Vice Chairperson), Francis Wanderi and Justus Nyang’aya — resigned after Ruto appointed a tribunal to probe their conduct.
Cherera, Wanderi and Nyang’aya were part of a dissenting faction which included Irene Masit that disowned the outcome of the presidential election..
“The ongoing process of reconstituting IEBC must stop immediately and a bi-partisan taskforce must be put in place to restructure IEBC in a manner that ends its monolithic operations,” Odinga said during a rally at Nairobi’s JeeVanje Gardens.
He also demanded for the opening of election servers despite a Supreme Court having supervised a scrutiny of the same during the hearing of a presidential petition filed by Odinga.
