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IEBC Chairman Isaack Hassan insisted that the mandate has been vested in the EACC through the proposed Bill on Integrity and Leadership/FILE

Kenya

Anti-graft team to clear candidates, says IEBC boss

IEBC Chairman Isaack Hassan insisted that the mandate has been vested in the EACC through the proposed Bill on Integrity and Leadership/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 12 -The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) now says that the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) will be responsible for clearing candidates ahead of the 2013 General Election.

IEBC Chairman Isaack Hassan insisted that the mandate has been vested in the EACC through the proposed Bill on Integrity and Leadership and that the IEBC will only receive the documents showing clearance.

“The body that clears candidates is actually the EACC, we will only receive the nomination papers from candidates and one of them will be the clearance by the EACC,” said Hassan after the launch of the new IEBC corporate identity.

Section 109 of the Political Parties Act provides that the commission (IEBC) may make regulations generally enriching provisions of the Act, including the process by which parties nominate candidates for elections.

Debate has been raging particularly over the eligibility of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto in running for the Presidency while they face charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Justice Minister Eugene Wamalwa who on Wednesday said that Kenyatta and Ruto were free to contest the presidency, maintained that it was his individual position that the two should run.

Wamalwa clarified that his Ministry was not in charge of vetting candidates for elections but that to the extent that cases at the ICC do not get into the way of Kenya’s politics, the duo was free to contest in elections.

“My office does not have the mandate of clearing candidates but my rationale is that the ICC should do its work within the law that guides its operations and that our political processes should not be affected by the judicial process,” insisted Wamalwa.

On Wednesday he said that the two are free to run now that the cases at the ICC are set to kick off after the General Election.

Meanwhile, the IEBC chair said his Commission would amend the Gazette Notice on Boundaries as soon as it receives a copy of the ruling delivered by the High Court on Monday this week.

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He said that he remained hopeful that the Court of Appeal will not issue injunctive orders while addressing appeals that have been lodged against the ruling on delimitation of boundaries.

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