We Will Change The Constitution To Have Elections In March 2018. – Jubilee MPs Warn CORD.

Six Mt. Kenya Region Jubilee legislators have accused CORD of sabotaging the IEBC talks to create room for a coalition government.

Senate Majority leader Kithure Kindiki, Kigumo MP Jamleck Kamau, Alice Muthoni Wahome (Kandara), Kamande Wambugu (Maragwa), Francis Waweru Nderitu (Ndaragwa) and Dr. Wachira Karani (Laikipia West) said the opposition CORD was deliberately delaying the talks, to create a scenario where the country will be forced to delay the 2017 elections due to a bleach in the constitution. This will therefore present an opportunity for them to demand for an interim coalition government, just as they did to the previous regime.

As a member of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and the Constitutional Oversight Implementation Committee, Kandara MP Alice Wahome said that they had received very serious allegations against the IEBC from the opposition but insisted that their removal must be in accordance with the constitution. Alice insisted that Parliament would never allow itself to be used as a launching pad for anyone in their quest to gain the country’s leadership.

Alice said that CORD was employing two strategies; one was to delay the election to an unknown date and the second one was to mobilise their people into the streets so as to demand the president (Uhuru) to vacate office in order to pave way for an interim government.

She said that the credibility of the current IEBC commissioners had been dragged into the streets and into the mud with one person’s agenda to make Kenyans lose confidence in them (IEBC). This, she said was a deliberate move to delay the elections or ensure that whichever body that was then constituted, lacked enough time to put the necessary legal framework to conduct a free and fair elections.

“In this way, CORD is preparing the country for the rejection of the (2017) results because if we did elections with a new set of commissioners, there will be no time to set the electoral systems right. (Remember), the Klingler report recommended a minimum of 14 to 18 months for a commission to get set for a credible election,” said Alice.

She reminded the opposition that, even in an eventuality that election won’t be held on August 2017, the constitution mandated the current government to serve for a five-year.

  

“When we look at the timeframe remaining to August 2017, it is not wrong to see an agenda by CORD to delay the next General Elections. I believe that they are not ready for elections and that is why they want to select and choose the arbiter,” said Alice.

She clarified that by doing so, they would have not infringed any part of our constitution because the term of any government ended after five years which, in this case, is March 2018.

  

“I see in a situation that we will not be able to do an election by August (2017), within the constitution framework, the term of the president and the county government is clear. It is five years. Even though the courts interpreted that we must do elections as per the constitution in August of the 5^th year, we can amend the constitution and change those dates. For me the government will still be legally in place upto March 2018.”

Kindiki said that there was an agreement between CORD and Jubilee to discuss about IEBC but at no given terms that Jubilee will agree to let CORD introduce other issues in their ploy to delay the talks.

“The discussions are about IEBC and IEBC only. The discussions around the IEBC must be expedited so that we have a peaceful and credible election. Because, as Jubilee, the elections must take place as scheduled in the constitution on 8^th August 2017. We do not want a delay,” said Kindiki.

Kigumo MP pointed out that CORD, being the people who went to the streets to agitate for the removal of IEBC were now the ones who had not yet come up with a list of those who would participate in the discussions to disband the electoral body.

“It is no secret that CORD is playing some delay tactics because they are sure they cannot remove this (Jubilee) government from power. That is why they are employing delays so as to make sure that there will be no legally constituted electoral body by August 2017. So, they will use that as an excuse to demand for an interim coalition government,” said Jamleck.