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 the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

In a notice released by the selection panel for IEBC commissioners, the duo who have had a glittering career in the corridors of justice 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.

Afterwards, during a five-week period that runs from Thursday, March 27, 2025, until Thursday, April 24, 2025, the selection panel will interview the other shortlisted members of the electoral commission. During the period the Panel will operate under a tight schedule that runs from Monday to Saturday, interviewing a maximum of five nominees per day. They are a total of 90 nominees under the members of the IEBC commission.
The Selection Panel clarified that the interviews will be conducted in public and that the shortlisted candidates must produce their original national identity card or passport and the originals of their testimonials and certificates on the day of the interview.

Valid clearances

Additionally, the nominees will be required to avail valid clearances from Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) and Commission for University Education (CUE).

“Members of the public are invited to avail, in writing, under oath, by memoranda, any information of interest with respect to the suitability of any of the shortlisted applicants to serve as Chairperson and Members of the IEBC,” the notice dispatched by the Selection Panel read in part.
The Selection Panel announced that it had received a total of 1,848 applications by the close of the exercise on February 15.

It sorted to remove the duplicates and other stray documents from the applications, remaining with 1,356 out of which 37 were for the chairperson position while 1,319 are for the commissioners.

The Nelson Makanda led selection panel is under pressure from politicians including President William Ruto who are piling pressure on the panel to expedite the interview process so that IEBC can be reconstituted to conducted by-elections can be held in areas where leaders have died like recently Malulu Injedi (Malava MP) and William Cheptumo (Baringo Senator)

Makanda said the panel 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.

President Ruto will then nominate one person for appointment as the chairperson and six persons for appointment as members before forwarding the list of nominees to the National Assembly for approval within seven days.

After the approval exercise is concluded, Parliament will forward the names to the President, who shall, within seven days, issue a Gazette notice to notify the public on the appointment of the chairperson and the members of the IEBC.

Successful nominees will be mandated to conduct general elections in every five years, undertake continuous registration of voters, conduct delimitation of constituencies and resolve arising electoral disputes.
The IEBC Act stipulates that the electoral body Chief Executive Officer, who also serves as the secretary to the commission, will serve for a term of four year,s which will only be renewable once.

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

Critical time

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.

During the recently concluded People Dialogue Festival, a section of civil society activists warned of a possible botched 2027 general elections over the delay in appointing IEBC commissioners.

They cautioned that Kenya could witness a repeat of the aftermath of the 2007 elections where about 3000 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.

IEBC selection panel’s chairperson Nelson 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.