President Uhuru Kenyatta replied to the demands of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) principals who are in hot pursuit to have Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) team disbanded and new one established before the next general elections for they lack trust on credibility of the current team.
Rubbishing the demands by CORD for national dialogue to discuss the reformation of the electoral body, the President stated that the Constitution has clearly laid out procedure for the removal of IEBC commissioners.
“CORD principals were part of the team that led us into passing the Constitution in 2010. It is perturbing now, therefore, that they want to find a way around it in the removal of IEBC commissioners,” Uhuru Kenyatta said.
“The opposition has a right to demand for the removal of IEBC but they should do so within the confines of the law. It is unreasonable for them, however, to endanger the lives of their supporters in the name of championing for their rights,” he added.
The ODM leader Raila Odinga is currently in South Africa for The Future of African Cities conference but he confirmed that he will be back in time to lead CORD’s third anti-IEBC protests in Nairobi on Monday.
Raila Odinga has severally rallied and demanded for dialogue with President. Speaking after Monday rapture, CORD principals said that they will not be stalled by police to put to halt their pressure to have IEBC officials sent home until when their demand will be met.
Currently, the whole issue seems to be stuck with government maintaining its stand that constitutional procedures should be followed to disband IEBC, Isaac Hassan saying that the will not bow to the pressure and already began preparing for next general elections and opposition staying put with demonstrations.
Deputy President William Ruto last weekend said a team from government was ready to discuss with CORD officials on the issue of IEBC in Parliament adding that the current wave of protests will not resolve the outstanding issues.
“We have for long told CORD that we have a team in Parliament that is ready to engage with them on the issues that they have raised and we stand by that. If they are serious about dialogue they should however desist from giving conditions,” said Ruto.
The opposition coalition has, however, ruled out going the “parliament way” in the resolution of the issues saying Jubilee has often used its majority numbers in Parliament to frustrate their motions.
“A petition, filed by Mr Wafula Buke mid-2014, for example, laid out various charges against the commissioners, which alleged that they had failed in their work and that they had been corrupt,” read the statement in part from opposition who were making reference to a petition by Wafula Buke about procurement of Biometric Voter Registration Kits.