Marjan among five shortlisted for polls agency CEO post
By Hillary.Mageka, March 1, 2022
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has shortlisted five candidates to fill the vacant Chief Executive Officer position.
Five applicants were picked from a pool of 511 applicants, who expressed interest. “Following the job advertisement, 511 applicants were received, of which five have been shortlisted,” advert placed in the local dailies read.
Among those shortlisted is acting Chief Executive Officer Hussein Marjan, 2017 Mombasa County Election manager Nancy Kariuki and Dr Joel Mabonga, senior deputy Director, Corporate Services at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.
Mabonga had previously served as the Director-Voter Education and partnership at the IEBC. He also once served as Chief Executive Officer, Independent Police Oversight Authority.
Others are Zephaniah Okeyo and George Michugu.
“The shortlisted applicants are invited for an interview at the commission’s Head office, 6th-floor Anniversary Towers, University Way on Tuesday’s March 8, 2022,” the advert.
“Shortlisted applicants are advised to bring original certificate and testimonials, original and copy of national identity,” it adds.
The process had also come under scrutiny after the commission Secretariat was allowed to receive and compile the list of applicants yet the head of the Secretariat, acting CEO Marjan Hussein, was also a candidate thus creating a conflict of interest.
Many people
For Marjan, however, the shortlisting hopefully bring to an end what has been close to a five-year stint as acting CEO.
“We hope that the commission should be able to finalise this process because like I said, advertisements were done and many people participated. This is the full responsibility of the commission,” Marjan, who appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Justice and Legal affairs recently said.
Tharaka MP George Gitonga, a member of the committee, had wondered how the country could walk into an election with a brand new CEO and possibly a greenhorn.
Marian, Okeyo, Kariuki, and Mabonga had all been shortlisted in the 2019 interviews that were stopped by the courts.
A total of 10 people had been shortlisted before the courts slammed their brakes on the process.