Three people have petitioned the High Court to stop interviews for Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) member positions because the selection panel is expected to interview some people who made applications after the deadline.

On March 5, 2025, the panel published a list of all the applications it had received by then for the positions after advertising them.

Lawyer Dickson Morara, activists Moses Mwaga and Angela Mbuthia argue that the IEBC recruitment exercise is irregular because the panel added names of individuals who were not in the first published list of applicants and those shortlisted for the ongoing interviews.

“The selection panel proceeded to publish the shortlisted applicants that had met minimum requirements that (list) included names of the applicants who were not in the aforesaid long list of March 5, 2025,” part of the petition read.

The activists had raised concerns with the panel over the integrity of the exercise, which they said was marred with obscurity, particularly the irregular addendum prior to filing the petition before the court.

In response, the selection panel explained that the addendum included the names of applicants who had been inadvertently left out in the initial long list.

However, the activists say the explanation mounted by the panel in defense is unsatisfactory to the extent that it exposes the selection panel’s system’s liability to error.

Further, they state that the selection panel, without revoking the shortlist of March 14, 2025, went ahead and published an addendum to the shortlist intending to thereby comply with constitutional provisions on March 25, 2025.

They state that the selection panel recruitment procedure is flawed from the start for being unconstitutional, discriminatory, inequitable and unrepresentative.

They accuse the selection panel of providing to the public disjointed, vague and incomplete information with the sole nefarious aim of obscuring the selection process.

Additionally, the petitioners argue that qualified youths who applied for the advertised positions were disqualified, yet they had met the requirements set.

“The new shortlist allegedly includes the youth yet in the previous correspondence the selection panel had indicated that no young people had met the lofty requirements for the two advertised positions,” read part of the petition.

They now want the whole process to be declared unconstitutional, urging the court to halt the ongoing member position interviews until the case is heard and determined.

“A declaration should be made that the section 6(2)(c) of the IEBC Act 2012, is inconsistent with the constitution and therefore void and invalid in terms of Article 2(4) of the Constitution,” part of the petition read.