IEBC chiefs exit pay to come from emergency fund

The government will spend part of the Sh5 billion Emergency Fund to pay off nine commissioners at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) if they opt to exit, the Treasury secretary Henry Rotich told Parliament on Wednesday evening.

Mr Rotich told the Joint Select committee on electoral reforms that the Treasury did not anticipate an exit of the IEBC chiefs led by Issack Hassan and hence no money has been budgeted for their soft landing.

Analysts say it would cost more than Sh400 million to pay the commissioners for their remaining term as well as their gratuity packages.

“When we do the Budget, we don’t make assumptions that something will happen then we budget for it. As at the time we were doing budgeting, there was no discussion that the IEBC commissioners will be leaving office,” he told the committee co-chaired by Senators James Orengo (Siaya) and Kiraitu Murungi (Meru).

Mr Rotich, however, said should the embattled IEBC commissioners decide to leave office before the end of their term, the Treasury will spend part of the Contingency Fund that is available for unforeseen expenditure to meet the cost of their exit.

READ: Parliament rejects Kinisu report on IEBC

The Fund is set aside for unforeseen expenditure.

“We have Contingency Fund and if the exit of commissioners from office occurs, we will treat it as unforeseen expenditure and pay them from the fund,” he said in response to questions by members of the 14-member committee who wanted to know if the Treasury had a budget to cater for the exit of commissioners should a decision to remove them from office be reached.

The commissioners are under pressure to vacate office with the opposition, led by Raila Odinga, accusing the electoral agency of incompetence and bias, saying they have no capacity to oversee free elections.

Last month, four of the commissioners are said to have written to President Uhuru Kenyatta expressing their willingness to resign but asked to be paid a cumulative sum of salaries they would have earned for entire term.

Attorney-General Githu Muigai warned that removing the electoral agency chiefs would affect the election preparation timelines as the State would need time to recruit and train new commissioners.

Prof Muigai said new commissioners would need a minimum 24 months to get ready for polls which would push the general elections set for August next year to mid-2018.