The National Super Alliance (NASA) today stormed out of a consultative meeting with IEBC and Jubilee following the decision by Jubilee to rapidly push changes to Kenya's electoral laws.
Siaya Senator James Orengo stated: "This legislation is being driven through parliament at supersonic speeds. By the end of the day, we may have a bill ready for assent, we were left with no alternative but to walk out of this meeting.. Jubilee has reached a level where they feel they can change the Constitution through the back door."
Another prominent member of NASA's legal team, Paul Mwangi, stated: "The effect of the amendment is to change the rules of the game midstream. What was a foul previously is no longer a foul."
The proposed laws fronted by Jubilee are currently being debated in Parliament. The new laws tabled by Aden Duale propose major changes to the electoral laws that were agreed to through a bi-partisan process in 2016.
Among the proposed changes is a complementary transmission system that is manual. The manually transmitted results will have more weight and will be considered final.
The laws also disempower the IEBC Chairman, proposing that any commissioner be able to take charge of meetings and lowering the quorum to 3. Orengo stated that this was because Jubilee has certain commissioners who can guarantee them a victory regardless of the actual results.
According to Orengo, the new laws also allow space for election results and statutory forms to be considered valid even without being prescribed.
Senator Orengo noted that the Kriegler Report that revealed the causes of the devastating 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence cited manual transmission as one of the triggers of the violence, due to low levels of public trust.
He stated that the Jubilee Party was making a brazen attempt to turn Kenya into a dictatorship.
He declared: "I want to remind them that we've been there before with President Kenyatta the 1st, Moi and even Kibaki..if they want to test the resilience of the people in resisting autocracy, dictatorship and despotism then they will begin to feel the wrath of Kenyans of goodwill."
