Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) nominee Moses Alutalala Mukhwana says Kenya's electoral challenges stem more from ethnic-based voting patterns than from institutional failures within the commission. "Kenyans do not trust themselves.
The problem is not the IEBC.
The biggest problem is that there is this perception that the bigger ethnic communities will gang up and then have it all," said Mukhwana.
Appearing before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee for vetting on Saturday, May 31, Mukhwana averred that the Commission's shortcomings are largely a reflection of the political environment in which it operates, not structural flaws within the institution itself. "The problem is not because the IEBC has an inherent problem, it is because the ecosystem within which the IEBC is operating is failing." To address electoral tensions and promote gender equity, he proposed the adoption of a party-list system, an electoral model where voters choose political parties rather than individual candidates.
