Five Year Term Limit for Kenya's Electoral Commissioners

Calls for overhauling of the electoral body in Kenya have become almost a compulsory "campaign agenda" every time we approach general elections. Our politicians forget about the most important issues (like food security, health, infrastructure, education etc) that need to be addressed urgently to improve the impoverishing socio-economic status of the common tax payer and instead spend months on end arguing about an issue that can be resolved with a stroke of the pen in our constitution.

The best solution is to reduce the tenure period for all commissioners to five years, consequently limiting them to overseeing only a single general election. The Electoral body commissioners should be selected at least two years before the date of election to enable them take over, settle and prepare adequately for forthcoming elections. Two years after the general election (in their fifth year of service), the sitting commissioners interested in continuing with the job should re-apply alongside any other qualified and interested citizens for fresh vetting.

This will result in less polarized, more issue-based campaigns. Our politicians will stop wasting time on discussing a few people who are only employed to oversee the process involving Kenyans exercising their democratic right of electing their leaders in a free and fair manner. It will also ensure that every general election is conducted by non-partisan individuals of high integrity, accepted by majority of Kenyans as able to conduct free and fair elections.