The Deputy President William Ruto has had a triumphant win against Raila Odinga on the supremacy battle to control the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) ahead of 2022 elections.
Members of Parliament allied to the Deputy President carried the day by passing a vote in support the IEBC amendment bill of 2019.
Through the voting process, it was perceived that the MPs made the move in concurrence with their current political alignment where out of the 126 MPs, 69 voted in support while 56 voted to reject the bill.
According to the new bill that has been passed by the majority, the four commissioners who has resigned will be replaced by new ones under the law through procedural organ.
On the other hand, the MPs who rejected the bill were for the idea that the remaining Commissioners should be sent home and a fresh team selected and vetted to prepare ahead of 2022 elections.
“Out of the 126 Members of Parliament present, 69 supported the bill and 56 opposed it. Therefore the majority win and carry the day hence the amendment bill has been passed,” said the Speaker of the National Assembly.
READ ALSO: NASA Hits Dead End As ODM Vows Divorce After Kibra Race.
The next stage for the bill involves presidential assent and thereafter a team will be appointed by the president before being vetted and replaced in accordance with the constitution.
Yesterday ODM MPs skipped an important session to decide on the fate of IEBC commissioners… The bill was to decide whether the four IEBC commissioners who resigned will… https://t.co/3nuSX3gRWe
— Duncan Makori 🇰🇪 (@EngnrDan) September 25, 2019
This move has been seen as a very big win for the Deputy President since he was much of the same idea and supported the bill.
Ideally, the fact that the majority of the MPs that voted in favor of the bill coming from the DP’s side is an affirmation to his win.
It is a shock and loss to Raila Odinga on the other side since he had faulted the IEBC in the way they conducted the last General Elections after the Supreme Court affirmed to having found illegalities and irregularities.
Before the 2017 General elections and after the nullification of the Presidential elections, the ODM leader had together with his team orchestrated a campaign strategy to ouster some of the election commissioners most especially Ezra Chiloba who was the CEO.
The #AntiIEBCDemos going on in Mombasa… Chiloba MUST go pic.twitter.com/Ngdmyk1UZ9
— Team Hassan Joho (@TeamHassanJoho) October 2, 2017
“Chiloba must go, there will be no elections until Chiloba resigns,” said RAILA Odinga during one of the demonstrations after election nullification.
READ ALSO: Chiloba, Former IEBC Commissioner Faults Punguza Mizigo.
According to NASA as a team, there were some irreducible minimums that they wanted the IEBC to meet before conducting a fresh poll.
Well, this plan has died after the passing of the new bill in parliament as the current commissioners will still serve in the 2022 elections with only the missing four being replaced.
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