{"id":119334,"date":"2025-08-06T14:06:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/iebc-decries-legal-gaps-on-early-campaigns-recalls-court-directive-for-new-law\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T14:06:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:06:29","slug":"iebc-decries-legal-gaps-on-early-campaigns-recalls-court-directive-for-new-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/iebc-decries-legal-gaps-on-early-campaigns-recalls-court-directive-for-new-law\/","title":{"rendered":"IEBC decries legal gaps on Early Campaigns, Recalls Court Directive for New Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 6 \u2013 Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairperson Erastus Ethekon has raised alarm over the lack of a clear legal framework to regulate early political campaigns in the country describing the current environment as a legal grey zone that undermines fair electoral practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ethekon acknowledged the commission\u2019s limited ability to rein in early campaigns, noting that although official campaign periods are set by the IEBC after gazettement of an election date, politicians have increasingly blurred the lines by launching subtle campaigns years ahead of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that as it may, you know in Kenya, almost every day, every hour, feels like it\u2019s an election campaign. What IEBC can do is basically I don\u2019t know because even the definition of what an early campaign is, is another murky affair,\u201d Ethekon stated.<\/p>\n

He cited examples of politicians leveraging social and religious gatherings to promote their ambitions under the radar, making it difficult for the commission to intervene.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause somebody can go to Sunday school and talk to the young kids and then say a few things about themselves. Is that early campaign? Somebody can attend a funeral of a relative, and there are these people, group of, what\u2019s they called? They\u2019re called aspirants. The moment members of parliament are elected, they go to parliament, others are busy campaigning or talking to people as aspirants,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

The IEBC chair further revealed that the issue has been formally recognized by the Judiciary with the High Court directing the Attorney General to prepare a draft law on early campaigning. The IEBC now awaits a meeting with the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice to deliberate on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not yet seen the draft bill, but we\u2019ll be meeting with the Attorney General\u2019s Office to discuss this matter of early campaigning,\u201d Ethekon said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe need clarity on what amounts to early campaigning, what are the parameter if there is such a phenomenon, then define the parameters within which it can operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethekon emphasized that the lack of a clear legal standard continues to erode public trust in the electoral process, especially when potential candidates maintain prolonged visibility ahead of official timelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, it is an area of concern, but since the courts have pronounced themselves and we\u2019ve been called upon to enact a legal framework to govern that, then it\u2019s a matter that we should keep in mind as we go forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The IEBC chair also addressed the legislative gap on the recall process for elected officials. He cited the inadequacy of the current legal framework for recalling Members of Parliament saying that while the process for recalling Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) may be better structured, the commission is working on developing more specific guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of now, as a commission, we felt that the legal framework was not sufficient, especially for the recall of Members of Parliament,\u201d Ethekon said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cBut for the MCAs, I think the commission will develop guidelines on how you can exercise that right in terms of collection of signatures, the timelines, the costs, and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He declined to comment further on a pending petition related to the recall issue, saying the commission awaits the court\u2019s decision on a petition filed on the matter before taking a formal position.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 6 \u2013 Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairperson Erastus Ethekon has raised alarm over the lack of a clear legal framework to regulate early political campaigns in the country describing the current environment as a legal grey zone that undermines fair electoral practice. Ethekon acknowledged the commission\u2019s limited ability to rein […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}