The journey to the 2027 General Election has taken off in earnest with commencement of the process to reconstitute the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) amid high expectations from the anticipated new team.

With barely two years left, time could be essence to the team that is expected not only to fill the vacant parliamentary and ward seats, but also embark on preparations for the 2027 General Eletion as well as give directions on the way forward on the contentious issue of constituencies boundary demarcations.

Already, the selection panel for IEBC commissioners has listed 11 candidates to be interviewed for the position of chairperson of the IEBC starting Monday.

Former Commission for Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) Chairman Charles Nyachae and immediate former Registrar of the Judiciary Anne Amadi have been listed in the first batch of 11 candidates to be interviewed for the position of chairperson of IEBC.

The duo made it on the list with other candidates who include Abdulqadir Lorot H. Ramadhan and Edward Ngeywa, who was picked under the persons with disability category.

Panellists will commence the oral interviews for the IEBC commissioner with four on Monday, March 24, 2025, from 8.30 am. The second batch of nominees for the IEBC chairmanship, which includes Erastus Edung Ethekon, Francis Kakai Kissinger, Jacob Ngwele Muvengei, and Joy Brenda Masinde-Mdivo, will be interviewed on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.

A day later, Wednesday, March 26, the last set of interviewees will be Lillian Wanjiku Manegene, Robert Akumu Asembo and Saul Simiyu Wasilwa.

Successful candidates

IEBC selection panel’s chairperson Nelson Makanda said his team will conclude the exercise in April and forward the names of successful candidates to the President by April 25 for appointment.

“Upon completion of the interviews, the panel shall select two persons qualified to be appointed chairperson and nine persons qualified to be appointed as members of the Commission and forward it to the President,” Makanda said.

This week, Fwamba NC Fwamba, chairman of the National Alternative Leadership Forum told PD Wikendi that the challenges the new IEBC team is likely to face include setting up systems for a free, fair, and verifiable election within the required timeframe.

“This involves securing funds, finalising procurement processes on time, conducting voter registration, carrying out voter education, and implementing relevant public participation programs,” said Fwamba.

Fwamba observed that additionally, the commission has the responsibility of creating awareness and building public trust and confidence in its capacity to execute its constitutional mandate.

“The new commission is expected to burn the midnight oil and learn from the mistakes of past commissions to avoid repeating them. Good public relations and effective communication will be crucial in building public faith and confidence,” added Fwamba.

Fwamba reiterated that the team must also streamline the commission’s operations and ensure that the transmission of election results is transparent, verifiable, and credible. This Fwamba indicated that it will be achieved through public engagement and the active involvement of all stakeholders.

And according to Machakos deputy governor Francis Mwangangi, the procees has so far been fair and transparent, although he does not rule out possibilities of the executive failing to interfere towards the tail end.

“But individuals who would be lucky to sail through should be ready for political interferences and frustrations. They need to stand their grounds and resist any attempt to control or blackmail them,” Mwangangi says.

The deputy governor says the last free and fair presidential election was in 2002 under the late Samuel Kivuitu and since then, successive electoral agencies have left office under controversial circumstances.

“People are tired of disputes , tensions, demonstrations and violence after every general election. We are looking forward to having an IEBC that may cure all these things that have dragged us behind since 2007,”Mwangangi says.

Selection panel

But even before the interviews kick-off, a youth lobby group wants the IEBC Selection Panel to explain the criteria used to eliminate youth applicants from the shortlist for consideration.

Through Onkendi Ombiro Company Advocates, the Notable National Youth Leaders Caucus’ Alex Matere and Inter-Party Youth Forum’s Kidi Mwaga have written to the panel to review the selection process and incorporate qualified youth candidates who meet the constitutional and legal thresholds.

The youth leaders argue that the shortlist has no youth representation despite applications by hundreds of young candidates who met the constitutional requirements to be commissioners, as evidenced in the long list published in the dailies.

“Our clients, the youth, demand to know the criteria used to eliminate all these deserving youth candidates. Our clients further condemn the systemic exclusion and demand that the panel immediately reviews and rectifies this discriminatory oversight,” the letter reads in part. The lobby group further contends that the current process is evidently flawed with a designed outcome.

“Should our grievances remain unaddressed within 48 hours, the youth of Kenya shall explore all legal and constitutional avenues available to challenge this exclusion, including but not limited to mass action, litigation and seeking parliamentary intervention,” they demand.

Matere and Mwaga claim that the published list has new entrants who were not on the long list that was published on March 6, 2025, and instead only appeared on an addendum published list on Friday.

Former Amani National Congress (ANC) Uasin Gishu branch chairman Nechu Saina observed that the incoming new IEBC team faces time constraints considering that there are just two and half years to the 2027 elections.

“Coupled with that are the near a dozen outstanding by-elections. And then there shall arise competing political party interests! Suffice it to say, both they’re in tray and out tray is full,” said Saina adding that it is difficult to foretell whether the new team will be able to withstand competing political pressures from either side of the political divide.

“Politics in Kenya tend to be polarising; tribal interests, regional considerations, incumbency tend to drive our senior politicians on edge.”

The electoral body has been dysfunctional since January 2023 after the expiry of the former commissioners who included chairman Wafula Chebukati (deceased), Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye.

Boundary review

Their term ended at a critical time when the commission was required to carry out boundary review for electoral areas as well as by elections, with the country almost plunging into a constitutional crisis.

President Ruto recently asked the Makanda-led panel to expedite the process of reconstituting the electoral body.

Speaking on Tuesday, March 4 in Kakamega County, Ruto opined that the reconstitution of the electoral body will help the people of Malava get a new member of parliament and continue their representation in parliament.

“I have already approved the committee tasked with finding the new IEBC commissioners. I plead with those responsible to expedite the process so that we can have a new IEBC in place and so that the people of Malava can elect their representative as I assist him,” Ruto said while pledging to support the constituents.

The president kicked off the process of selecting new IEBC commissioners on January 27, with the appointment of the nine-member IEBC selection panel via a gazette notice after the process had been stalled by several litigations in courts. This comes when a section of civil society activists warned of a possible botched 2027 elections over the delay in appointing IEBC commissioners.

Speaking during the recently concluded People Dialogue Festival, they cautioned that Kenya could witness a repeat of the aftermath of the 2007 elections where about 3,000 people were killed and hundreds more became Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) after the eruption of the post-election skirmishes.

“We are late. We are now reconstituting IEBC mid-term. We are exactly two and a half years to the general elections. We have done two and a half years. It’s a mid-cycle, and yet the substantive commission is not been put in place,” Electoral Law and Governance Institute for Africa (ELGIA) Executive Director Felix Owuor said.

Makanda had earlier reassured that they are guided by the provisions of the Constitution, the IEBC Act Cap 7C as well as other relevant laws in constituting a new team.

Owuor further stated that the majority of the electoral reforms anchored in the bills that emanated from the National Dialogue Committee (Nadco) report in 2023 might not be actualised within the 18-month deadline before 2027 elections.

“Whereas Parliament, and thanks to the Justice Committee of both houses, have expedited the legislations, except the IEBC Amendment Act, all the nine NADCO bills are yet to be fully passed. And so, whether we will be able to meet the 18-month deadline is something that we need to consider,” he added.

The Elections Amendment Bill, Political Parties Amendment Bill, Election Offences Amendment Bill, and Statutory Instruments Amendment Bill are in the National Assembly.