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Residents of Banisa Constituency in Mandera County held a demonstration to protest a prolonged period without a Member of Parliament (MP) in the National Assembly.

The residents, led by Banisa Ward Member of Assembly (MCA) Issack Dahir, expressed their frustration, having now gone 15 months without an MP, 12 more than the required period of three months.

Banisa request

Addressing the media during the demonstrations in Banisa, Dahir urged President William Ruto to solve the matter, insisting that the delay has created a constitutional crisis.

He added that the constituency is facing injustices following the lack of representation in the National Assembly.

“Are you aware that the failure of your government to conduct a by-election within 90 days has created a constitutional crisis in a country you swore to protect its constitution? We are actively requesting you to help solve this matter. Each day this by-election is delayed is an additional day we continue to suffer injustices,” Dahir stated.

Banisa was left without an MP after Kullow Maalim Hassan died in March 2023. The family of the second-term lawmaker confirmed that he died while undergoing treatment at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi.

He succumbed to his injuries while in the hospital’s ICU after he was involved in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident near Capital Centre in South B, Nairobi, on Saturday, March 25.

Why Banisa crisis?

The election was to be conducted within three months, but the current Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) cannot make key decisions that facilitate the supervision of elections and referenda.

This is after the constitutional single six-year terms of the chairperson Wafula Chebukati, and members Boya Molu and Abdi Yakub Guliye, expired on January 17, 2023.

Vice chairperson Juliana Cherera, and members Justus Nyang’aya and Francis Wanderi resigned in December 2022 rather than face a tribunal appointed by President William Ruto to investigate their conduct during the August 9 General Election.

Irene Masit, on the other hand, was dismissed by President Ruto on February 27, 2023, following a recommendation by a tribunal that investigated her conduct during the election.

These developments left the IEBC to operate without commissioners for over a year.