There was a light moment as interviews for members of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) started yesterday when one of the candidates, Abduba Mollu, admitted that his wife had also applied for the job.

Mollu didn’t think it was unethical for a husband and a wife to serve in the electoral body at the expense of other qualified candidates.

“We felt we could serve Kenya in this role and we have the requisite experiences. Unless we all end up being on the same committee, I don’t see a conflict of interest arising,” Mollu said.

He termed it a double blessing should they both make the cut for IEBC post.

Mollu revealed how they have been applying for the same jobs but only one of them gets shortlisted. 

“There are instances where we both applied and I was shortlisted but she was not. This committee is charged with the responsibility of ensuring we have the face of Kenya in IEBC and I don’t expect that both of us would be considered. We come from one county and are one family,” he said.

IEBC or Mollu did not however state the name of the spouse.

The search for commissioners for IEBC started after three days of grilling of candidates shortlisted for the chairperson position.

The Nelson Makanda-led selection panel began the interviews on Monday where 11 candidates were interviewed for IEBC chairperson, paving the way for the interviews of another 105 candidates for the commissioners’ positions.

In the second phase, the schedule released by the panel shows that the interviews will be running from Monday to Saturday until April 24. The panel will handle five interviewees per day.

Former Wajir Deputy Governor Abdihafid Yarow told the panel he continued to enjoy endorsements to serve in the county government from his clan members who viewed him as an elite.

Yarow said in the north-eastern region, political positions are shared among the clans through negotiated democracy – an equivalent of party primaries – where the clan elders nominate the candidate to take up the elective seat.

“When devolution came, clan elders decided how the community was going to share these positions. Clan A will go for the governor and Clan B  senator.  It’s kind of primaries and then now the clans go back and now decide who is going to be best suited for that position,” Yarow said.

Enjoy endorsements

Being among the pioneer deputy governors, the candidate explained how his clan picked him for the position, 50 days before the election at a time when the governor had campaigned for almost two years

“I never looked for this position, I was chosen by elders to be the running mate of the governor at that time and that’s how I ended be the deputy governor. I was just sitting in my office doing my work when elders came to me and told me that they felt I can fit into this position. I accepted and they proposed my name to the governor,” he added.

Later after serving as the deputy governor, the elders would later front Yarow to take up a County Executive position in the subsequent Wajir county government.

The former senior tax auditor at Kenya Revenue Authority who has also been admitted by his clan as an elder denounced negotiated democracy as a method of picking candidates for elective positions, saying it denied residents their right to vote.

“As an IEBC member, I don’t think I’ll promote that because I’ll be interfering with people’s choices. Maybe when I’m outside there as an elder I could, but as an IEBC member I will not because I might be interfering with the choices that people are supposed to make as enshrined in the constitution,” he clarified.

Noting that the winner-takes-all principle of sharing government after an election makes losers feel discriminated against, Yarow called for the revival of the Building Bridge Initiative proposals so that they can also get some of the government positions.

“This issue of winner-takes-all is what is making our election so polarised. In Kenya, everything is tied around politics and as an IEBC commissioner, I would like Kenyans to revisit the issue of BBI and see how we can take care of the losers so that we don’t just leave them on the streets,” he added.

Yarow who is a trained accountant said he will use his knowledge in balancing books to ensure that IEBC upholds arithmetical and data accuracy during vote counting.

To undertake boundary review in the north eastern electoral areas at a time when the courts invalidated the 2019 census data of the region, Yarow said that IEBC should proceed and utilise existing data available from progressive reports even as the government embarks on a fresh head count of the residents. 

Grabbed land

Another candidate, Abdihakim Adan, a former Mandera Public Service Board chairman, told the panel that his leadership skills had been tried and tested since he once put his life on the line to accomplish an assignment.

Adan said while trying to reclaim a grabbed land in the Mandera West sub-county that had been earmarked for the establishment of an airstrip by Kenya Airports Authority he was confronted by armed goons who had been hired by the cartels.

“The land had been demarcated by the defunct local authorities of which the surveyor  happened to be a county staff. It had already been encroached on by cartels.

“People never thought government land would be reclaimed because there was a new system of governance,” he added.

“It almost cost my life. Even after holding prior consultations with the local community, hell broke loose the people came with goons.

“They started interrupting us when we started demarcating the land. It is the support we got from the security agencies and county enforcement officers that helped us complete the duty.”