Commissioner Eng. Abdullahi Sharewe 

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission –IEBC was tasked by the local of Trans Nzoia county on why it choose the 4^th March 2013 date as the election date with the locals wondering why December date was not chosen.

The IEBC commissioner Eng. Abdullahi Sharewe had a rough time in explaining on why the commission took the date with explanations of the date being tabulated in the constitution not being bought by the participants of the sensitization programme on election and Political Parties Bill 2011 organized by IEBC in conjunction with national democratic institute.

According to the new constitution, elections can only be held after the two principals dissolve the coalition government in writing which they are not willing to do or sixty days after the end of this parliament’s term which is 14th January 2013.

Read:

• Kenya elections to be held on Monday 4 March 2013
• The High Court errs on date when the first general election under the new Constitution ought to be held and it must be corrected by the Higher Courts.

It also emerged that the president cannot dissolve the current parliament as it was out of his mandate according to the new rules.

Eng. Sharewe also noted that his commission had been given procedural powers and they were putting in place a unit to deal with those who intend to cause chaos during the forthcoming elections as the commission was no longer toothless.

The commissioner called upon the voters to be cautious on this forth coming election as the posts had increased to six from previous three, but his team was working on a modality of using different colours to differentiate the levels of leadership.

Mrs. Jane Amira from the National Democratic Institute 

Mrs. Jane Amira from the National Democratic Institute called upon the political parties to take up their sole responsibilities which include educating and informing its members on community affairs and recruiting new members.

She also urged them to exercise internal democracy so as to exercise participation of all members in the running of party affairs.

Mrs. Amira noted that all parties who will present fake certificates will be de registered and thus deemed to be unlawful groupings.

“Ethics are important on new rules thus you either shape up or be shaped out”, said Mrs. Amira.

Funding from outside is now prohibited by the new rule as a political party can only be funded by a Kenyan and shall not pass 5% of the total budget.

If a party will be found to have received money from outside donors, the money will be impounded and handed to public coffers while the receiver will be fined affine equivalent to the funds.