Why Roselyn Akombe has not been replaced at IEBC 5 months later

juma chrispinus

February 13, 2018 8:41 AM

Dr Akombe fled to US and resigned on October 18, 2017.

Five months since Dr Roselyn Akombe’s resignation as a Commissioner at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), President Uhuru Kenyatta is yet to declare a vacancy in search of her replacement.

It was expected that the president should have done so, at least seven days after learning of the resignation of Dr Akombe.

“The President shall publish a notice of a vacancy in the Gazette within seven days of the occurrence of such vacancy,” states part of the IEBC act, 2017.

Dr Akombe quit her job at IEBC on October 18, 2017, citing lack of preparedness by the Commission to hold a credible election.

"The commission in its current state can surely not guarantee a credible election on October 26. I do not want to be party to such a mockery to electoral integrity," she said in her resignation statement.

The law provides that the Commissioner was supposed to write officially to the president, and seemingly, she failed to do so.

“The President shall publish a notice of a vacancy in the Gazette within seven days of the occurrence of such vacancy.

“Whenever a vacancy arises, recruitment of a new chairperson or member shall start immediately after the declaration of the vacancy by the President,” the IEBC Act states.

This means that the president may not have received an official notice of resignation of Dr Akombe form the commission, or he may have blatantly failed to respond to the notice, if it was ever served to his office.

The reported of a decimally considered issue by the president according to State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu, even after IEBC vice chair Connie Maina confirmed that the UN employee wrote to State House.

juma chrispinus