The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is staring at a forensic audit after the discovery of a Ksh2.7 billion debt in legal fees.
IEBC officials led by the CEO Marjan Hussein Marjan who appeared before the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and struggled to explain how the fee accrued to billions.
Marjan noted that the commission did not control the number of election petitions filed in various courts countrywide. He explained that the commission had pre-qualified law firms but at times, it was forced to seek reinforcement at different stages of court proceedings.
He revealed that after the 2022 General Elections, IEBC was facing 124 petitions which stretched their thin legal team. He added that the Treasury was set to allocate funding to cater for this but the money was never disbursed.
"We relied on Article 22 of the Constitution, anticipating funding from the exchequer. We couldn't simply sit back while being sued and not defend ourselves," he explained.
During the session, the committee, and the commission accrued this amount while defending itself in different election petitions filed in the past 10 years.
However, the committee argued that the fees were exaggerated and this may indicate that public funds were misappropriated.
Committee chairperson Butere MP Tindi Mwale emphasised that through investigations must be conducted to determine whether the billions were put to good use.
Furthermore, the committee also added that a probe should be conducted into the various legal firms that represented the commission in the various election petitions.
The MPs claimed that some officials may have been in cahoots with some legal firms and city lawyers to defraud the public through exorbitant legal fees.
"We have also called for an investigation into the legal firms that have represented IEBC in petitions. We suspect that there may have been many instances of fraud, with accusations pointing to exorbitant legal fees that appear to defraud public resources," Mwale stated.
The commission was advised to hire qualified lawyers if it expected petitions after every election. This would reduce the financial burden on the country.
