Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna on Thursday, March 30 proposed the reintroduction of the Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group (IPPG) formula to end the stalemate over the re-constitution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Sifuna explained that IPPG would address the exclusion concerns by the Azimo in the selection of the new IEBC commissioners.
The formula would see political parties in the minority, Azimio, work alongside the current IEBC selection panel gazetted by President William Ruto.
"The IPPG formula resulted in an election body for the 2002 General Election that everybody accepted was the fairest in Kenya's history.
"Let the Ruto panel meet but we will come there as representatives of the other half of the country to also participate in that process," Sifuna stated during a panel on Citizen TV.
However, Citizen TV journalist Ayub Abdikadir who was moderating the debate poked holes in the Senator's claims of the efficiency of the system.
"When you talk about the credibility of the elections in 2002. In 1997, a similar mechanism was deployed and the outcome was challenged by the late Mwai Kibaki. How credible will the IPPG process yield an acceptable outcome from the election commission? Ayub posed.
Sifuna clarified that he meant that the election outcome would not yield confidence in the newly constituted IEBC ahead of the 2027 poll.
The Whip of the Majority in the National Assembly Sylvanus Osoro denounced claims of exclusion stating that the minority was offered specific slots in the panel.
"We reduced the PSC slots from four to two and placed it in the minority's hands and also gave them the Political Parties Liaison Committee and Inter-Religious Council," Osoro stated.
However, Sifuna maintained that none of the two representatives were from the minority and that the members of the Inter-religious Council were not known to Azimio.
"I asked my Bishop if the Catholic Church was consulted in the nomination of members to the council and he said no. The people are Ruto's friends, the individuals who pray with Rachel Ruto in State House," he stated.
One of the demands by Raila to stop the mass action was for the Head of State to stop the constitution of IEBC.
