[kictanet] Should We Reserve a Slot for an ICT Professional Within the IEBC Commission??
Benson Muite
benson_muite at emailplus.org
Sat Sep 10 10:28:42 EAT 2022
Currently the selection panel consists of:
> (a) two men and two women nominated by the Parliamentary Service
> Commission;
> (b) one person nominated by the Law Society of Kenya; and
> (c) two persons nominated by the Inter-religious Council of Kenya.
The IEBC mandate[0] is:
The continuous registration of voters and revision of the voter'roll;
The delimitation of constituencies and wards;
The regulation of political parties process;
The settlement of electoral disputes;
The registration of candidates for elections;
Voter education;
The facilitation of the observation, monitoring and evaluation of
elections;
The regulation of money spent by a candidate or party in respect of
any election;
The development of a code of conduct for candidates and parties;
The monitoring of compliance with legislation on nomination of
candidates by parties.
In addition to the Institution of Engineers of Kenya[1] (technical
aspects of elections), some other relevant bodies are :
- The Institution of Surveyors of Kenya[2] (delimitation of
constituencies and wards)
- The Teachers Service Commission[3] (voter education)
- Media Council of Kenya[4] (voter education, monitoring)
The performance of the IEBC in technical, education and public
information has been substandard. The current selection process does
guarantee inclusion of representatives that can evaluate the
effectiveness of the commission in all areas relevant to its mandate.
As such the act could be amended to have a selection panel composed of:
(a) two persons nominated by the Parliamentary Service Commission;
(b) one person nominated by the Law Society of Kenya;
(c) two persons nominated by the Inter-religious Council of Kenya;
(d) one person nominated by the Institution of Engineers of Kenya;
(e) one person nominated by the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya;
(f) one person nominated by the Teachers Service Commission; and
(g) one person nominated by the Media Council of Kenya.
This would increase the members of the selection panel by two people to
9, and have an associated increase in costs, but a more effective IEBC
would also be more cost efficient. The number of commissioners would
also remain the same, and the selection panel members do not do this as
a full time position. Amendments can be done as private bill sponsored
by a single member of the national assembly (as was the case for the ICT
Practitioners bill). A petition[5] is another way to have the matter
considered. Of course, there maybe better ways to achieve the intended
outcome of a more effective IEBC. A thought provoking article. Thank you
John Walubengo and other listers for your comments.
0) https://www.iebc.or.ke/iebc/?mandate
1) https://iekenya.org
2) https://isk.or.ke/
3) https://www.tsc.go.ke/
4) https://mediacouncil.or.ke
5) http://parliament.go.ke/the-senate/how-submit-petition
On 9/8/22 12:17, Benson Muite via KICTANet wrote:
> Amendments to the IEBC act[0] are possible, see for example[1].
>
>
> A constitutional amendment is not needed as the constitution does not go
> into details on who can be a commissioner[2]. The IEBC act Revision
> 2012[3], specifies:
> 1. Selection Panel
> (1) Within fourteen days of the commencement of this Act, the President
> shall, in consultation with the Prime Minister and with the approval of
> the National
> Assembly, appoint a Selection Panel comprising of—
> (a) two persons, being one man and one woman, nominated by the
> President;
> (b) two persons, being one man and one woman, nominated by the
> Prime Minister;
> (c) one person nominated by the Judicial Service Commission;
> (d) one person nominated by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Advisory
> Board; and
> (e) one person nominated by the Association of Professional Societies
> of East Africa
>
> The current act Revision 2020[1] specifies:
> 1. Selection Panel
> (1) At least six months before the lapse of the term of the chairperson or
> member of the Commission or within fourteen days of the declaration of a
> vacancy
> in the office of the chairperson or member of the Commission under the
> Constitution
> or this Act, the President shall appoint a selection panel consisting of
> seven
> persons for the purposes of appointment of the chairperson or member of the
> Commission.
> (2) The selection panel shall consist of —
> (a) two men and two women nominated by the Parliamentary Service
> Commission;
> (b) one person nominated by the Law Society of Kenya; and
> (c) two persons nominated by the Inter-religious Council of Kenya.
>
> It seems that professional bodies have been preferred. At present the
> ICT sector does not have a strong representative body, for example
> comparable to the ACM in the USA or the Institute of Electronics of the
> Chinese Academy of Sciences. Essentially, a body capable of joining the
> International Federation for Information Processing[3] is needed.
>
> The Kenya National Academy of Sciences[4] may also play a good role,
> though at present the website appears to be down.
>
> The IEBC act does not include commissioners with a technical background,
> who might be able to understand engineering of KIEMS kits, the details
> of biometric identification and results transmission. In addition to a
> computer science/IT professional, it would be good for an Engineering
> body such as The Institution of Engineers of Kenya[5] to also make a
> nomination. Delimitation of boundaries is an important part of the
> requirements of the IEBC, technical expertise in this area is also
> welcome to prevent gerrymandering.
>
>
> 0) https://www.iebc.or.ke/uploads/resources/8Z5fmROhVD.pdf
> 1)
> http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/2020/TheIndependentElectoralandBoundariesCommission_Amendment_Act_2020.pdf
>
> 2)
> http://www.kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/IndependentElectoralandBoundariesCommissionNo9of2011.pdf
>
> 3)
> http://www.kenyalaw.org:8181/exist/kenyalex/actview.xql?actid=Const2010#KE/CON/Const2010/chap_15
>
> 4) http://www.ifip.org/
> 5) https://www.knascience.or.ke/
> 6) https://iekenya.org
>
> On 9/1/22 15:42, Shitemi Khamadi via KICTANet wrote:
>> Hi David
>>
>> Interesting question. I was pondering the same early this week and my
>> answer is yes. The issue would be the process of getting there and I
>> think we have a number.
>>
>> The best would be if it's anchored in the constitution. Meaning that
>> should there be any process to amend the IEBC section, then the sector
>> should consider adding their voice to it. The second is to Parliament
>> and the select committee that oversees this process. A memo to them,
>> quite early in their process should suffice. The same can also be sent
>> to the President. The last is to encourage colleagues to put their
>> names out there when the time comes.
>>
>> A representative process closer to the IPPG one could also work, if
>> such an opportunity arises or legal revisions lend themselves to it.
>>
>> Thank you
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 3:23 PM David Indeje via KICTANet
>> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke <mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>>
>> wrote:
>>
>> image.png
>> Dear Listers,
>>
>> In our latest series of blogs about the 2022 Kenya Election as
>> authored by Mr John Walubengo, we are posing a question:
>>
>> "IEBC Commission: Should We Reserve a Slot for an ICT Professional?
>>
>> Mr Walubengo notes that "In all the past three presidential
>> petitions (2013, 2017a, and 2017b), ICT seems to have been central
>> to the Supreme Court’s final decision. However, the way ICT matters
>> were prosecuted, one could almost say the ICT was on trial."
>>
>> Read the rest of the article here: https://tinyurl.com/3sh2h4vt
>> <https://tinyurl.com/3sh2h4vt>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Kind Regards,*
>>
>> **
>>
>> *David Indeje*
>>
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