NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 10 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has finally gazzeted the list of candidates in select elective seats who will participate in the August elections.
In a gazette notice backdated to 1st July 2022, the commission listed candidates who will participate in the polls for the presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial, Woman Representative, Member of County Assembly (MCA) and constituency race.
Despite the hurdles of a pending case , Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja’s name has been listed after he clearance was upheld by IEBC dispute resolution committee.
The High Court will on Monday give its ruling on the inclusion of Sakaja’s name on ballot papers.
Dennis Wahome, a petitioner, had asked the court to bar the electoral agency from printing ballot papers for Nairobi until the case is heard and determined.
For the Mombasa gubernatorial race no candidate from Wiper Party has been listed in the race after the High Court issued orders barring Wiper Party from nominating another candidate to replace Sonko in the race.
Mombasa Gubernatorial Hopeful Mike Sonko had move to court seek to quash the decision by IEBC dispute resolution committee upholding the revoking of his candidature.
Sonko will on 15th July know whether his name will be on the ballot for the Mombasa governor contest or not.
A three-judge bench of Olga Sewe, Ann Ong’injo’ and Stephen Githinji hearing the petition filed by Sonko against IEBC retreated to prepare their ruling.
The ruling had been set for Friday this week but the judges said they would need more time to go through all the submissions tabled by lawyers representing Sonko, IEBC, and Wiper.
The delays in the gazettement of candidates participating in the August general elections had been apportioned to the government printer.
On thurdsday, IEBC had revealed that it delivered the list of more than 16,000 candidates across the six elective seats by June 30 this year.
However, the government printer is said to have had a mechanical breakdown which has occasioned the delay in the gazettement of candidates.
Election stakeholders had raised a concern that the commission was participating on an illegality having commenced the printing of ballot papers when the candidates had not been gazzeted.
“We understand there were logistical challenges including breakdown of the equipment at the government printer and that’s why it has taken a bit of time,” said Chebukati.
The poll agency legal advisor Crispin Owier noted that the gazette notice will be out in the recommended time as the government printer was burning the midnight oil to ensure it is gazetted on time.
“As of yesterday there was a slight problem on the photographs of the candidates. The notice has to come out with the photographs of the candidates so this morning the government printer indicated that it was almost done with the transposition of the photograph,” Owier stated.
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