Having Kigame on ballot will cost taxpayer Sh971m

The taxpayer will foot an extra Sh971 million bill to have the name of gospel musician Reuben Kigame added to the presidential ballot papers.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson, Wafula Chebukati, warned that the agency would incur close to Sh1 billion in extra costs to re-draft the presidential ballot papers and include Kigame’s candidature.

This follows High Court judge Anthony Mrima’s order to the commission to accept and review Kigame’s presidential nomination papers. Mrima, however, declined to order the commission to include Kigame’s name on the ballot, saying the court would be overstepping its mandate on the matter.

In a statement, Chebukati said the range of steps and processes required to give effect to the judgment may jeopardise the holding of presidential elections on August 9, 2022 — being just 18 days away.

He noted that to effect the ruling, the commission has to gazette the presidential candidates, and include the new candidate and his running mate on the ballot, which will require a reprogramming of the Candidates Registration Management System for registration and ballot proofing.

In addition, IEBC will have to re-programme the Results Transmission System (RTS) to include the candidate and his running mate, and recall and reprogramme the 55,650 KIEMS kits to be used in the 47 counties and the diaspora.

“The printer of the ballot papers will have to redesign the printing template to include the new candidate and his running mate. Then there will be reprinting, repackaging and eventual rebooking and rescheduling of flights to deliver the pallets to the central warehouse, which the printer confirms will not be possible in time for the elections, slated for August 9”,  he said.

According to Chebukati, the cost of printing new ballot papers and rescheduling freight is not less than Sh971 million (eight million euros), an amount that is not in the commission’s election budget. The said processes, subject to availability of the budget, require a minimum of 30 days.

“The commission is committed to inclusivity of marginalised groups — including women, persons with disabilities, youth, ethnic and other minorities, and marginalized communities. However, IEBC believes that reliefs granted to any special category of Kenyans should be governed and provided for within the Constitution, election laws, and timelines thereof,” he said.

The Court of Appeal has issued directions and the matter will be heard today (July 21). “The commission has appealed against the decision of the High Court in the Constitutional Petition filed by Reuben Kigame challenging the decision of its Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) regarding his bid to be registered as a presidential candidate,” said Chebukati.

Violated rights

The appeal arises from the judgment delivered by Justice Mrima on July 18, where the court issued, among others, a declaration that the decision of the DRC violated Kigame’s rights under Article 54 of the Constitution and the Persons with Disabilities Act.

The DRC had considered a complaint filed by Kigame regarding the nomination process and upheld the decision of the returning officer that Kigame failed to comply with the requirements for registration of presidential candidates, as set out in Article 137 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010.

According to Chebukati, the aspirant did not meet the requirement to be ‘… nominated by not fewer than 2,000 voters from each of the majority of counties.’

The judge proceeded to direct the commission to accept and consider Kigame’s papers in accordance with the judgment. The court was of the view that Kigame demonstrated exemplary effort in complying with the requirements, and that the list of supporters he presented would suffice. Accordingly, he “shall therefore not be disqualified on account of an insufficient number of signatures of his supporters.”

But Chebukati contends that the judgment of the High Court presents a number of legal and practical challenges, which will jeopardise next month’s General Election.

He said Article 137 of the Constitution requires a presidential candidate to be “nominated by not fewer than 2,000 voters from each of the majority of the counties”.

“The requirement to be nominated by at least 48,000 supporters is thus a constitutional requirement whose non-compliance renders the nomination papers invalid. In the present case, the decision of the returning officer was because Kigame had only presented a list of 1,013 supporters as of May 25, 2022, which was the set deadline for submission of the list of nominating supporters,” he said.

Chebukati charges that the commission has not received any other list of supporters, and is not aware that such a list was presented to the court to enable it arrive at the conclusions in the judgment.

When contacted, Kigame said that IEBC reached out to them to go pick the list of requirements and present them on Friday at their offices. “Our team has already been given the list and we will present the requirements to them on Friday,” he said.

His running mate is Irene Nyendo.

“The list of supporters referred to by the Court has not been presented to the Commission nor has it been analyzed to determine whether the listed nominating supporters meet the prescribed numbers and are registered voters as required.”

On Tuesday, Chebukati explained that the commission would be forced to postpone elections in areas where the courts are yet to finalize the cases arising from nomination of candidates.

“The court has made a judgement, we respect the ruling of the court and if he presents himself, we shall listen to him. It is up to him to come and present himself, and we will process him,” said Chebukati.

The Monday ruling by Justice Mrima has thrown the commission’s preparedness into disarray even as it contemplates postponing the presidential election and Mombasa gubernatorial polls.

When contacted Kigame said that IEBC reached out to them to go pick the list of requirements and present them on Friday at their offices.

“Our team has already been given the list of requirements and we will present them to the IEBC on Friday,” said Kigame.

Early this month, Justice Mrima had also ruled that IEBC erred in disqualifying some of the Presidential aspirants on flimsy grounds such as lack of signatures of supporters.

Justice Mrima declared the requirement for candidates to present copies of IDs of supporters from at least 24 counties as unconstitutional, adding that the requirements were in contravention of Article 31 of the Constitution of Kenya and the Data Protection Act.

“ A declaration is hereby issued that the regulations 18 (2)(c), 24 (2)(c) and (36(2)(c) of the Elections (General) Regulation, 2012 (as amended in 2017) are in contravention of Articles 2(4), 10, 27, 38(3), 83(3), 99 (1)(c),137(1)(d) and 193 (1)(c) of the constitution,” ruled Justice Mrima.

This now means that the commission will have to look at Kigame’s papers without demanding signatures and copies of the IDs to clear him to vie for the presidency.

End