Treasury Readies money to pay IEBC chiefs if they quit

News & Politics
1

I was told keti pale ----------> when I covered this option by some ktalk keyboard warriors. To simply pay them off in full (which is the best option).

Source: The Sitandart
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000210021/we-have-money-to-pay-iebc-chiefs-if-they-quit-says-cs-rotich

Nation:
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Rotich-offers-cash-for-IEBC-chiefs/1056-3319210-mjp8r3/index.html

Summary
The Government yesterday said it has money to pay off the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) bosses should they exit office before the next General Election.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich yesterday told Parliament’s select committee on the electoral body that although the money was not factored in the Budget, it would be ‘an unforeseen expense that would be catered for by the contingency fund’.

Full story: (Standard version)

Should the electoral agency commissioners opt to leave office before their term ends, they will be paid their dues. The Government yesterday said it has money to pay off the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) bosses should they exit office before the next General Election. Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich yesterday told Parliament’s select committee on the electoral body that although the money was not factored in the Budget, it would be ‘an unforeseen expense that would be catered for by the contingency fund’. “When we write the Budget, we do not assume that something like this is going to happen. When we were doing the Budget, there was no discussion on the exit of the commissioners. However, we have contingency funds for such unforeseen expenditure if it does occur,” Mr Rotich told the committee. Treasury further proposed that elections for the President and that of governors be held on different dates to reduce logistical expenses. He explained that the country spends Sh2,100 per voter compared to other countries that spend an average of Sh170 per voter. READ MORE Let all eligible Kenyans register for 2017 polls Arsonists borrow from destructive politics Raila’s claims rock team probing IEBC commissioners “There is need to adjust the practice of conducting six elections on the same day. You may want to separate executive elections from legislative elections so that you utilise the staff available and minimise the practice of conducting six heavy elections on the same day,” the CS told the committee co-chaired by Senators Kiraitu Murungi (Meru) and James Orengo (Siaya). This would mean conducting presidential and gubernatorial elections on the same day, and setting those for Parliament and county assemblies on a different date, a scenario the CS said would place Kenya on a similar pedestal with other countries. The question of prudent use of resources and of the commissioners’ exit has been a thorny one, with various stakeholders proposing that the commissioners give way to a new team to conduct the next elections. Among those who have made the recommendations are religious leaders, the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) and members of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). The committee is investigating any allegations against IEBC, with a possibility of recommending commissioners’ exit from office. The team is also mandated to propose the legal and policy reforms to the electoral system. Rotich’s comments add another angle to the debate, in which some commissioners have reportedly written to President Uhuru Kenyatta expressing their willingness to leave in dignity if offered an exit package.

Nation version
The National Treasury has funds to pay the electoral commissioners if they voluntarily resign.

Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said on Wednesday the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission bosses will be paid directly from the emergency account known as the Contingency Fund.

“We do have contingency funds for that kind of unforeseen expenditure,” said Mr Rotich, opening a window for a solution to the IEBC stalemate. “This for me is unforeseen if it does occur.”

The Contingency Fund is usually allocated Sh5 billion and the commissioners have said Sh200 million would be enough to pay for the time left in their contracts as well as gratuity.

The CS had been asked by members of the joint select committee of Parliament on IEBC reforms, after making his presentation, to state how much would be due to the commissioners in terms of gratuity and severance pay if they leave office right now. He said he would give more details in a written memorandum to the committee.

The select committee, co-chaired by Senators Kiraitu Murungi (Meru) and James Orengo (Siaya), is investigating the IEBC with a view to sending them home. One of the key issues has been payment of the commissioners should they choose to resign.

Meanwhile, the Cord coalition is expected to present its case for the removal of the commissioners when it appears before the committee on Thursday.

A team led by lawyers Norman Magaya and Paul Mwangi is expected to demand the removal of all the IEBC commissioners as an “irreducible minimum”.

They will also push for the reduction of commissioners from the current nine to a maximum of five, said Mr Magaya, who is also the executive director at the Cord Secretariat.

A statement from Cord leader Raila Odinga’s spokesman Dennis Onyango said it would give a detailed position on its desired electoral law changes.

“The team will present Cord’s case against IEBC and a detailed position on electoral reforms,” said the statement. “Cord was the mastermind of the push to have discussions on reform of the IEBC, which led to the current bi-partisan talks.”

At County Hall, where the committee is sitting, Mr Rotich said the IEBC was allocated Sh14 billion this financial year for the 2017 General Election, which the Treasury deems sufficient.

IMPLEMENTED REFORMS

The CS said from his view of IEBC’s work it had implemented reforms — especially in its planning for procurement — to prevent the sort of issues that resulted in it overshooting its budget in the 2013 elections.

“Unlike previously, I saw a very detailed election management plan,” said Mr Rotich. “I have not seen any complaints this financial year.

“What we have given them is what they need. I think this time round I saw a very elaborate plan.”

Mr Rotich said that with nine directorates, 17 departments, 17 regional election coordinators and 290 Constituency Election Coordinators, the IEBC has a bloated staff and a huge wage bill.

The minister asked the committee to consider having the number of commissioners reduced and working part-time.

The committee was, for the second time this week, angry with the Office of the Auditor-General for the failure of its head Edward Ouko to show up and that of the officers he sent to provide adequate information.

2

The issue has never been whether they will go but how. They have to be removed from from office through the correct procedure.

3

your title is misleading…in fact it is an attempt at a spin. you deliberately insinuate that treasury has gone out of its way to prepare funds to create the impression that the departure of the commissioners is imminent, a foregone conclusion. yet both stories only tell of the treasury’s course of action should the commissioners decide to leave…

i am still going to tell you to keti pale-------------->

7 Likes
4

The constitution protected the IEBC by making it very difficult to simply remove them from office at will. It did not want anybody or institution to interfere with the activities or make up of the IEBC. So you simply just cant remove them from office, not even the President or the Courts. The easiest option is simply for them to quit on their own will.

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my title has the word “if” they quit. “if”…'if". Maybe my English is too complicated.

6

it is not complicated at all…my beef is with the word “readies”…

7

R

Readies can mean put aside, to prepare for a future event.

1 Like
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my title has the word “if” they quit. “if”…'if". Maybe my English is too complicated.

Teacher, teacher, learn to read, understand and condense.

9

we are supposed, as good citizens, to know what the contingency fund, whose role is clearly spelt out in the constitution, is for; to pay for unforeseen eventualities. to insinuate that it has been “readied” to pay off the commissioners is to mislead that the Finance CS, and by implication the executive he works for, is expecting that the commissioners will be forced to choose an early exit, hence the preparation to pay them off when that happens…

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Just how will the commissioners be FORCED to choose an early exit? By stones, teargas? The Constitutition is clear on their removal.

11

is it out of their own volition that they are expected to take an early exit?

12

An early exit, if they choose one, will be their choice. This is not covered under the constitution. The stone throwers expect them to take an early exit. But the stone throwers choose to do so because they have no argument in court per say, although there is certain facts the stone throwers forgot to look at.

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Hii ni summary kweli?

14

Politics of demonising others and scapegoating at work, Isaack ataenda nyumbani with a fat cheque na Monkey TrAder will still come second condemned to another 5years of barking by the roadsides.

You’ve got to feel sorry for those commissioners though, they made mistakes but the results were still credible, then some loser who refuses to accept he lost drags their reputations in the mud to justify his loss.